West Coast Sicily Day 6 Favignana-Trapani

It's a Saturday and so traditionally a changeover day for apartments so we were warned to get our ferry tickets back to Trapani the day before. In fact there is a long queue of people at the port in Favignana waiting for the ferry, which is oddly (because it's quite early in the morning and a splendid day with no apparent reason for delay) late. It sets off absolutely full and after about 40 minutes we are wheeling our small trolley suitcases through the old streets of Trapani in search of our Airbnb apartment. It's in Via Poeta Calvino, a road just behind the main street Via Garibaldi in the pedestrian historical centre and so quite narrow, less poetic than its name, some houses seem to be having work done, a few are boarded up. Once in through the main door we are in a courtyard where the stairs lead up to the apartment and we get a five star welcome from our host, who is extremely polite and kind. We later discover that his day job is indeed reception in a five star hotel. The apartment is simple and clean and has air-conditioning, as in the photos and the description and at less than 30 euros per night for two people we have no complaints even if I can't enthuse over the colour scheme like in Favignana.

The first priority as always is to do some basic shopping so we use Google maps to get to the nearest supermarket. We also buy bread, which is a pity because we soon discover from the smell drifting up to our window that one of the uninspiring entrances a little way along is home to a very inspiring baker who provides loaves, freshly baked twice a day, of excellent Sicilian bread for just 2 euros per kilo.

It's a tradition to not actually cook the first day we arrive at a new destination so we head to Palazzo Platamone Self Service where there is an ample choice of local food in generous portions at cheap prices. It's Saturday and so apart from workers there are also quite a few families. The food is simple but good, we choose Pasta alla Norma and baked fish. After lunch we go back to the apartment to get sorted out, we'll be staying there for 10 days so there's no hurry. 

There's a large car park in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele which more or less divides the old part of Trapani from the newer area. After a rest we go out to explore. This is not the first time we have been to Trapani. We visited in 2004 and liked it even then but are impressed by the improvements made since . The whole historical centre is a lot smarter and cleaner,  both at a prosaic ground floor level where interesting little shops and eateries have appeared, and in terms of historical buildings which have been cleaned and restored to their full splendour. 

Apparently, tourism has increased a lot in Trapani due to the cruise ships which have started stopping and to the amount of Ryanair flights into Trapani airport. The effect, in this case, is absolutely positive compared to the already charming but slightly rundown city we remembered. On this Saturday afternoon the historical centre is full of local people and tourists, a busy and cheerful atmosphere. We head off through the centre and then double back past the old fish market which is no longer used (we remember entire enormous tuna fish hung up when we came the time before) and then up onto the pedestrian promenade Via Mura di Tramontana Est where we indulge in the first of what are to be many ice-creams at Gelateria Liparoti. 

It must be said that I don't eat ice-cream, it's cold and leaves me unsatisfied for some reason (yes, well, don't take any notice), but for some reason I eat the ice-cream made here, coffee ice-cream tastes of delicious mouth-watering coffee ice-cream, pistacchio ice-cream tastes of delicious mouth-watering pistacchio ice-cream, yes well, you get the idea. Thus fortified we head as far as Torre de Ligny and then start walking back to catch the sunset. The first of many evening shows of splendour in Trapani.