An Afternoon in Sciacca
We had a decent day today and after spending an hour trying to set up payment on my Vodafone account, unsuccessfully because their website and mobile app were not accepting credit card info, we hopped in the car and headed down into the city center.
There are a lot of 16th century buildings and churches in Sciacca. As in most cities of any size and importance there was a Jesuit college and church. After Garibaldi helped drive the Bourbons out of southern Italy many church properties were taken over. In Sciacca the Jesuit college has become the Municipal building. It has fared much better than the church, which appears to still be in use, but the facade and exterior walls need some restoration. Except for main roads, streets in the center are still narrow. The other day we tried to get around in the northeastern section by the old fortress and had to be real carefull. Streets dead-ended or became true vicolos, walking streets only. One actually has a sign showing only 1.5 meters wide. That'd be hard getting a motorino through. You may not have been able to get an Ape, the little motorcycle sized truck, down it.
We found an old castle, the Castello Perolla, who's tower was converted to a church, which played a role in a historic attack on Sciacca in the 1600's when wooden cannons were used, according to the tourist sign descriptions. It's courtyard is now mostly a shrine to various local saints, despite the fact that a street runs through it. As we wandered back down towards the main piazza, where the city Natale tree is erected, we ended up following the original road that wound uphill to the castle.
The main square has been set up for Christmas. A tree is set up and there are small temporary shops set up for selling small holiday items. There was one woman open even during the siesta time making and selling hats.
The square is surrounded by older and new buildings and overlooks the port and it's area. We parked at the west end of the main piazza in a municipal parking lot and walked east through the piazza towards the old part of town where we came upon the older churches and eventually up the hill where we found the tower of the Castello Perolla and the remains of the castle itself.
There are other interesting places, palazzi, old churches, etc throughout the area. Every town of any size seems to have a Chiesa Purgatorio. We found one in Mazara del Vallo and Marsala and we found one in Sciacca too. I've added photos of these and the signs outside of them in the next gallery. I find the architectural details in these old buildings intriguing. You may too.
Tomorrow the weather's cleared. Sunny and warmer so we're headed to Caltagirone, about 2 hrs and 45 min away. It's near the Villa Romana Casale, north of Gela. It's a center for ceramics and is supposed to have a collection of Christmas creches that are unique in style and quantity. It's located in a mountainous region so there'll be more landscapes to capture.
Ciao for now.