Mozia and Marsala

Today we travelled to the south western tip of Sicily for our tours. Our first destination was the island of Mozia. It is an island opposite the town of Marsala. The island was a Phoenician colony settled around the 3rd century BC. Sicily is ideally situated at the crossroads of east west trade as well as north south trade. The island is protected by a shallow lagoon which was an ideal anchorage place for the early trade ships. The water in the the area has a high salinity and the city used the salt marshes to “harvest salt” and use it as a trade item. Today they still use these salt flats for drying the sea water then piling the extracted salt on shore to dry before selling it to be used in industry. Piles of salt from the last harvest were everywhere. The island itself is surrounded by low backdrops and was easily defended. They built a causeway to get to the mainland. Eventually it was destroyed when the island was under siege and eventually destroyed. The ruins had everything

you might expect from a protecting wall, portals, temples and houses. The attraction of this island was that it had a fresh water supply. The ideal trade location, a built in trade item (salt) and a safe anchorage. A very good set of ruins.

The second stop was the Pellegrino Winery. It makes (by agreement) about 25% of the total Marsala wine production. Marsala is a fortified wine (wine mixed with alcohol) and is sold throughout the world. It was an extremely interesting tour. The women presenting is part of the original family that started the winery. She was very proud that women have been in the business for generations. The process for making Marsala is very complex but follows the original mixing formula. Marsala is comparable to a Port or Madeira wines. They do produce many different wines. The big barrels contain up to 6000 litres of wine each. There were many smaller barrels as we walked through the building. All the wine is stored in french oak casks and can only be used for about 15 years. Then they sell them to distilleries for whisky storage. After the tour we were treated to a light lunch and 3 different types of wines including the golden Marsala. A very interesting tour.

After lunch we had a quick tour of the town. More narrow streets! Marsala is where Garibaldi landed with 1000 men (a fact disputed by our guide) and started the revolution that eventually ended in the unification of Italy. Dinner tonight was back at the hotel. Tomorrow will be a bit shorter.