West Coast Sicily Day 7 Trapani

The Museo Regionale "Agostino Pepoli" in Trapani can be visited free on the first Sunday in the month, in the morning. If you have been reading our blog for some time it will therefore come as no surprise as to where we were on Sunday morning in Trapani at just past 9 a.m.!

The Museum is located in the former convent of the Carmelite Fathers, next to the sanctuary of Maria SS. Annunziata, so the building itself is interesting to see inside.

The museum has three important collections: the collections of antiquity and art by Count Agostino Sieri Pepoli, the founder of the Institute, which includes a guillotine and artifacts related to Garibaldi;

the gallery of General Giovan Battista Fardella and the museum of Count Francesco Hernandez of Erice. The collections of the Museum are divided into three main sections: Renaissance Sculpture, Paintings and Applied Arts, with a small section dedicated to the Memories of the Risorgimento; the renewed Archaeological Section is being completed. The part we found most memorable was the section dedicated to coral jewellery and miniature cribs made out of coral and other small stones.

Exquisite works of art requiring utmost delicacy and patience, they definitely made the visit worthwhile. Walking there and back along the beach takes up most of the morning. On the beach we see some of the coral colour among the sand just where the waves are breaking.

After a leisurely lunch we wander back out to explore more of the old centre of Trapani,

repeating some of our steps from the previous day but also walking down along the rocks to Torre Ligny looking at the point where the two seas meet. We also walk out towards the small harbour and Lazzaretto area but access to Villino Nasi really does seem to be closed.  We eye up the new fish market, hopefully for tomorrow morning and then, continuing around the harbour we go along Viale Regina Elena to the port area where the ferries to the Egadi islands depart.  We pop into the nearby Cathedral for Mass, then double back to Ligny for a hint of the sunset

before stopping in the centre in Corso Vittorio Emanuele at Tenuta Adragna where you can buy wine directly from the barrel. We stock up on wine in some of the plastic bottles I've brought along. It has also become a trendy place to drink, with young people, and not so young, perched on the doorstep or balancing food and glasses in the street outside. We choose Zibibbo for Tina and a little more Catarratto for Andrea and head for home, the streets of the centre are thronged with some tourists but mostly local people enjoying the passeggiata on a Sunday evening.