West coast Sicily Day 11 Mazara del Vallo

Thursday morning there is the market in Trapani and we are not disappointed. There is an enormous variety of absolutely everything all at cheap Sicilian prices, from fruit and vegetables to olives to fabrics to second-hand and new clothes. Travelling light is temporarily annoying since it limits us to just a few purchases among so much temptation. A shirt, some olives we will eat over the next few days, some oregano, some dried tomatoes, a border of crocheted sunflowers.......

Never mind, just looking around is fascinating. After a very good lunch of fish we set off in the Fiesta to Mazara del Vallo which is about an hour by car from Trapani.

First stop, the beach to the north of Mazara which ticks all the boxes - practically no-one on the beach, you can easily park in the road right behind the beach, the beach is clean and the sand pleasant and the sea warm and clean and transparent, ok not San Vito but on the other hand the nearest person is about 300 metres away. I swim, we sunbathe, we walk, I swim, we rest. Very very nice.

But the main reason for visiting Mazara today is the Blue Sea Land festival.

Blue Sea Land is an Expo of Mediterranean agri-fishing and food supply chains in collaboration with the countries of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa,  to promote the development of a Green and Blue Circular  Economy. In practice there are events and stands all based on promoting the excellent food and drink of the whole area. We are a bit worried about parking but manage to find a space on one of the main roads towards the centre. Mazara is a multicultural town with a mix of nationalities and a large fishing fleet.The events start off later so in the meantime we visit the cathedral,

the seafront and riverside and the old Arab centre , the casbah.

By late afternoon some of the stalls are opening and we find one specialized in Cannoli. Impossible to resist such temptation!

The stalls are really interesting with high quality local products. We buy sundried cherry tomatoes (small and light in the suitcase!), some honey and olives to eat over the next few days. By now it's dark and the lighting occasionally disappears leaving stalls and visitors in darkness, everything is resolved with good humour and the main event of the evening which is the production of a Guinness book of Records length ' croccante' proceeds well. It's a very enjoyable evening and late by the time we head back to the car and for Trapani, but the road 'home' is quiet.