Seeing both Selinunte and Marsala meant a long but eventful day off the ship. Leaving early in the morning, we first visited a vast, wonderfully green site covered with colorful spring wildflowers and gigantic columned temple ruins at the Archaeological Park of Selinunte. After a typical Italian lunch of two types of pasta, we drove to Marsala, the landing site of Giuseppe Garibaldi before his quest for Italian Unification in 1860. In the Archaeological Museum, we saw the Punic warship and the Roman cargo ship recovered from the water near Marsala. The town is also famous for its Marsala wine that we tried during the short tour of Cantine Florio, the local winery founded in 1833 that produced the entire range of Marsala fortified wines. In the meantime, Sea Cloud sailed to Trapani to meet us there shortly before dinner. Afterward, some of us took a short evening walk through the narrow streets of the port, which has been an important one since Norman times.
5/31/2019
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Sea Cloud
Monemvasia, Greece
On this two-week voyage, we save the last day as an exploring day to adjust to the voyage thus far and the group interests to finish the trip with a crescendo. Since we’d had plenty of excellent sailing day and night across the Ionian Sea and the water was still too cool for an improvised beach day, we knew that this group would love a surprise stop at the stunning Greek rock of Monemvasia on the east side of the Peloponnesus. The offshore rock was inhabited in prehistoric times, and the medieval town of Monemvasia was founded in the 6th century. An arched bridge was built to connect it to the mainland in the late 19th century, but there are no roads or vehicles in the walled medieval city that is perched under the cliff face. No maps or guides are necessary, and we all enjoyed the morning winding through the labyrinthine streets and alleys. It was a stunning finale to a beautiful voyage.
