Monday 20 May  - Marsala
First, you need to know that when we turned up 30 mins before the puppet show last night, we were greeted by a sign which Google translated to Next show 2 June. So, once again we had no choice but to order a vino rosso ( or 2) and  a pizza and a risotto, and sit and watch the crowds of Sicilians strutting their stuff along the main street which had been cordoned off for the purpose. All the human puppets were even more fascinating  than any manufactured doll.
This morning bags needed to be outside the door before 7am and travellers breakfasted and ready to board our coach by 8am.
Away we rolled on the motorway through Capaci where there are two magnificent monuments to Judges Falcone and Borsoline who were assassinated by the Mafia on 23 May 1992. Falcone is going through the deification process to become another patron saint of Sicily.
We wound our way slowly through Mamma Mia roads up 2,100ft to the hilltop town of Erice - such a pretty little oh- so-Sicilian town built into the hillside.  The gastronomic feature there was the Pasticceria Maria Grammatico where we were served with a platter of traditional almond biscuits (all of which I could eat) and a glass of Marsala wine washed down by a cappuccino.  We continued our climb by foot to view the 5th century Norman castle which looked so Peter Jackson in the swirling mists.
After a breath-stopping descent in our coach we went on to view one of the traditional salt mills and learn the specialist process of making salt.
I shall never take our salt for granted again. A small flat-bottomed ferry took us to an island where there is a vast collection of findings from the Phonoecian period, the most treasured of which is a more-than-life-sized marble statue of a charioteer estimated to be dated 5BC. So much of the stuff was in perfect condition.
We had 1 1/2hours to explore the island before the boat trip back to our coach for a 2 hour drive to our luxurious Giardino Di Costanza Resort. Oh my!!!! We have adapted to this very quickly.

As I said in yesterday's blog, my email and Facebook are malfunctioning, so you are better to use mgcaisley@gmail.com for any catch-up on the home news. I seem to be able to get single photos on to fb by going through Instagram. Go figure. Peter is having no trouble at all and is tagging his photos hoping that my friends will get them. All very curious.