12 March 2024 – Monreale & Scopello

Miles driven today = 71

Total Miles to date = 2,319

Between 2:30 and 6 this morning we had series of intense rain showers.  There may well have also been some hail involved because it was LOUD!  And there were some rumbles of thunder thrown in as well, just to make absolutely sure we were properly awake, so we’ve been a little weary today.

The escape from the Palermo traffic wasn’t quite as horrifying as I imagined it would be and we were quickly climbing uphill away from the city and through another road flooding downpour before reaching our first destination at the town of Monreale.

The weather obviously hadn’t put off the bus-loads of, predominantly Chinese, tourists who, like us, had come up here to visit the town’s Norman Cathedral.  We queued up for tickets and were surprised to be told that as we were only interested in looking around the inside of the Cathedral itself it would be free of charge.

Inside is what is reckoned to be the most impressive collection of medieval Christian mosaic work to be found anywhere in the World, with easily recognisable scenes from the Bible portrayed around the walls.

On the top here you can see Adam and Eve and their encounter with the dastardly snake, enticing them to munch on the forbidden fruit.

Here is Noah with his seriously overloaded looking Ark.

And here’s Abraham just about to chop his son into little bits because some beardy bloke in the sky told him to do so.  Somebody call Childline!

Some of the other mosaic patterns had a far more Islamic feel to them, reflecting the Arabic influence on Sicilian art.

Much like we saw in Cefalu the crowning glory is the huge figure of Christ above the main alter.  And again much like in Cefalu the spectacle was somewhat marred by scaffolding as a result of restoration work.  Presumably this was why we were allowed in for nowt.

We escaped the tourist throngs and had a quick wander about the town but there wasn’t a huge amount of interest which we haven’t seen elsewhere before.

There are supposed to be some fantastic views over Palermo but the weather was still looking very drab so we headed back to the car park and made our escape.

We took the SS186 westward through some wonderfully rugged countryside.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze through Pioppo with buses and lorries coming towards us and wing mirrors were rapidly retracted to avoid clashes.  Otherwise we enjoyed some spectacular vistas, although the amount of rubbish dumped along the roadside was depressing at times.

We dropped down and around the urbanized area of Partinico and joined the un-tolled autostrada for a while before turning north along the coast to the village of Scopello where we parked up and had a spot of lunch.

The Rough Guide describes this place as being “too picturesque to be true”.  The main attraction is a disused tuna processing plant on the seafront but I didn’t appreciate it’s actually a museum which is, of course, currently shut and undergoing titivation in preparation for the forthcoming season, so we had to make do with views from the path above.

The other noteworthy fact about this place is that the author Gavin Maxwell (he of “Ring of Bright Water” fame) lived here during the 1950s.

We moved on again and circuited our way over to the western side of the peninsular so that we could drive up to San Vito Lo Capo at its most northerly point and after a quick shop for supplies at the local Conad (very disappointing & won’t be using them again) we dropped a couple of miles back down the coast to the El Bahira Camping Village. 

We’re a bit confused as to whether it’s €23 or €21 a night on the ACSI card.  It’s rather quirky and could do with a lick of paint in places but we have everything we need. 

It’s also very peaceful and the beach, such as it is, is once again close enough to hear the waves crashing from the van.

There is a small planted area which they slightly imaginatively call a “Botanical Garden”.

They do have a have a rather bored looking pair of resident terrapins there in a small and exceptionally green looking pond.

It’s a month tomorrow since we arrived in Italy so while I was filling up with diesel on the way here this afternoon, Lisa popped into the filling station and topped up our WindTre Sim with another month of unlimited data usage for €20.  Not only is mobile phone usage here the cheapest in Europe, it also probably has the best coverage.  This is easily the remotest spot we have camped at so far on this trip but our MiFi hasn’t skipped a beat and is still smashing out 4G signal, allowing me to upload my blog daily and to stream films and football matches (sometimes both simultaneously) no matter where we go.  Compare this if you will to our little tour of South East England this time last year when I regularly couldn’t even get enough signal to feed my daily Wordle addiction.  We really are behind the curve in so many ways.

13 March 2024 - Coastal Walk