A View of the West Coast

The flat-roofed pale-plastered buildings, looking as if they were covered with a thin layer of dust, remind us both of the Middle East. The wind is still fierce and although the BBC tempt us out with promises of temperatures in the high teens, it continues to feel wintry and people remain bundled up.

This was true when we approached Marsala today, home of the dessert wine. The centre, sixteenth century, is attractive with narrow, balconied streets. The Cathedral is, surprisingly, dedicated to Thomas a Becket, or St Thomas of Canterbury as he is known here. This was at the request of Joan of England, daughter of Henry II (yes, the one who had Thomas murdered) and wife of William II of Sicily, who was a Norman. There is a painting of the murder scene, not in a prominent position, as one might expect, but above the organ.

Behind the Cathedral is a museum housing eight sixteenth century Flemish tapestries which depict the fight for control of Jerusalem between the Romans and the Jews in 66AD. The tapestries are huge and intricate. We listened to explanations of the scenes in English, but used our phones to remind ourselves of the complexities of tapestry making. Tapestries are sewn from the back following a picture or ‘cartoon’. The cartoon is often painted in reverse, so when the tapestry is turned over the picture will be the ‘right way round’. If the cartoon was not painted in reverse, the sewers would often use a mirror to reverse it. Apparently, clever workers could transpose the image in their heads so then it would be orientated correctly when turned the other way.

The prize exhibit of the Archeological Museum, along a scruffy sea-front (rather like an out-of-season English seaside town) is the remains of a warship dating from the first Punic war (between Ancient Carthage and Rome) in the third century BC. Images show a long vessel, with bow and stern that ‘curl over’, a skimpy sail and a lot of oarsmen. Together with the wreck, only discovered in 1969, are amphorae, bones of animals and even marijuana stems, which it is assumed, were chewed by the oarsmen.

Yesterday we visited the tiny, but pretty village of Scopello. Looking for cappuccini, we found the owner of the only open bar plaiting and weaving flat lengths of grass to form a waste-paper basket. His work was perfectly neat, but slow, and I wonder if he can sell his finished goods for enough money to compensate for the time taken.

We later drove on to Segesta, to see the first of the Greek ruins we are planning to see on the island. There were only a few tourists around so we could get shots of the temple without people in the picture – so different from the Parthenon when we visited Athens one June.

The Greek remains on Sicily apparently rival those in Greece. The temple at Segesta was abandoned before completion. At the base of each pillar, on the ‘outside’ aspect are horizontal knobs. These are thought to be necessary to aid the raising of additional stones and would have been chiselled away at the end of construction. The temple was built for worship, but it is not known what or who. On a high ridge, it strikes me it could be a perfect lookout.