Day 01
Erice Village Walk from Porta Trapani to the Castle of Venus
- The guided tour of Erice will lead you through a village of timeless charm, built on Mount Erice, among alleys and architectural jewels that preserve the history of the peoples who have inhabited it over the centuries.
- It starts from Porta Trapani, one of the oldest gates of the city and the entrance to its historic center, and continues to the Cathedral of the Assumption. Commissioned by Frederick III of Aragon in the 1300s as a gesture of thanks to the town, it is a typical example of Gothic architecture in Sicily and was originally enriched with mosaics that were destroyed when the roof collapsed.
- Inside, the church is adorned with white stucco lacework in the style of the period.
- Next to the Cathedral, whose facade is enriched by an elegant rose window and a portico that give it a unique and monumental appearance, stands the Tower of King Federico, or bell tower, built on the ruins of an ancient military watchtower and commissioned by the King of Aragon.
- Our tour continues through the historic center, with its picturesque cobbled alleys, ceramic shops, and historic pastry shops, where you can taste typical local sweets such as almond pastries and Genovesi, Erice's most characteristic dessert, made of delicious milk cream wrapped in delicate shortcrust pastry.
- Walking through the village, we can admire the Cyclopean walls, so called because the Phoenicians are said to have used very robust workers from a nearby population, the Cyclops, for their construction.
- These ancient walls, made up of huge boulders on which you can still see engravings of letters from the Phoenician alphabet, were erected to protect the population from enemy attacks.
- The walk will also allow us to explore the English-style Balio Gardens, built at the end of the 19th century by Count Pepoli, which surround the area where the evocative Castle of Venus is located.
- The guided tour ends with an exploration of the remains of the fortress and its panoramic terraces overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Trapani, and the Egadi Islands, an enchanting view from the highest point of the village.
- From the castle, built near an ancient temple of the goddess Venus, you can also admire several watchtowers, including the beautiful Art Nouveau-style Torretta Pepoli.
