buon giorno Trapani

Never ones to let the dust settle, a week after returning from Malaga G and I were off to Sicily for a ten-day summer holiday. 

We were flying in to Trapani, on the West coast, on that most budget of airlines (or at least it's budget in everything but its price), RyanAir.  Given our disastrous return flight on EasyJet only a week earlier, we were somewhat apprehensive about re-entering the world of budget airlines.  However, as much as I hate RyanAir, I have to confess that our flight went without a hitch and we arrived in sunny Trapani just before lunch time.

Trapani seen from Erice

Trapani is a pretty but small and sleepy town.  Most of its old buildings were destroyed in the second world war.  However, the main streets still retain some charm.  The city also has a rather nice beach.  Perhaps because of Trapani's size and sleepy nature, the beach is much cleaner and quieter than most city beaches.

me on the beach

 

Trapani has recently become a popular tourist destination and many of those wandering the streets seemed to be tourists.  I gather that the growth in Trapani's tourism industry has coincided with RyanAir using its small airport (all of the less-budget airlines seem to use Palermo airport).  The main appeal of Trapani is really its location, as it's a great base to use to explore the Egadi Islands and Erice. 

The first day of our trip we spent largely lazing on the beach in Trapani.  That first day of beach lazing  did, of course, enable me to take the obligatory photos of locals wearing ridiculous swimming costumes.  Given I was trying surreptitiously to take these using my camera phone, the quality of the photos isn't great.

The rest of the time in Trapani was largely spent with us taking day trips elsewhere (described later on in this blog), and returning to Trapani only of an evening. 

Nonethess, during the short periods of time spent in Trapani we managed to make a friend by way of a stray dog who insisted on following us everywhere, and who somehow managed to find us, night after night, no matter where we were in Trapani.  We were almost sad when we left Trapani and had to say goodbye.