Itineraries experience.

This exploration of the northwest coast of Sicily gets off to a flying start, aboard the funicular train which, transports passengers from Trapani to the top of Mount Eryx and to the legendary town of Erice. As the train makes its ascent towards this charming medieval town, passengers are treated to phenomenal views of the whole province of Trapani; the area's immense salt marshes shrinking into little more than a small pink-colored stain on the surface of the intense blue sea, which, at this stage, is some 750 meters below. On their arrival in Erice, visitors are greeted by a magnificent view of the mountains surrounding the Bay of San Vito Lo Capo, and the promontory from where, on clear days, the coasts of both Sardinia and Tunisia can be seen.

In Erice, where even on the hottest days of the year the air still feels wonderfully cool, visitors tour the medieval center, which still perfectly conserves its original triangular urban plan and its three Norman gateways: Porta Spade, Porta del Carmine and Porta Trapani. Erice has two castles, Castello Pepoli and Castello Venere, the latter built on the site of an Ancient Greek temple dedicated to the pagan goddess of love. Then there are the churches: Erice has more than 70: too many to mention here but a joy to discover one by one, as visitors wander through the maze of little lanes and alleyways which characterize the town.

Back on the funicular railway train, we descend to Trapani, which is built on a promontory lapped by the sea on both sides, and is often referred to as the "city of the two seas". Life in the city still rotates around the port, from where boats heading to the nearby Egadi Islands depart. In 2005, Trapani was chosen to host one of the European legs of the America's Cup. Since then, Trapani has been the subject of an impressive renaissance, which has included the restoration of dozens of patrician town houses in the historic center. On warm summer evenings, locals and tourists alike can be found strolling through the old center of Trapani, admiring the elegant façades of the buildings. Many of the narrow streets are lined with fashionable pavement cafes, chic restaurants, and ice-cream parlors.

Trapani's Torre di Ligny, built in the late 17th century as a coastal defense tower, now provides the seat for the city's Museum of Pre-historic and Marine Archeology. In the summer, the rocks around the tower are a popular urban beach. Like Erice, Trapani has an impressive number of houses of worship, one of the most fascinating of which has to be the Chiesa del Purgatorio. Inside this 17th century church, the entire collection of the Gruppo Sacro dei Misteri is conserved: a series of twenty beautiful wooden statues which are paraded through the streets of the city in the Procession of the Mysteries, which takes place each Good Friday.

Not far from Trapani, on the road to Marsala, we come to the Paceco salt plains. Here, the great expanses of pink salt form a candy colored lunar landscape, inhabited by colonies of flamingos and dotted with the windmills which traditionally used to grind the salt. From Paceco, we continue towards Marsala, famous for its fortified wine and for having been the landing site of Garibaldi's "thousand men" in 1860. The arrival of this small army on Sicilian soil marked the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the start of a process which was to conclude with the Unification of Italy. The city is littered with monuments erected in memory of Garibaldi, the charismatic mercenary, who is often dubbed the 'Hero of the Two Worlds'. Whilst construction of the city's Cathedral commenced in 1628, long before Garibaldi's arrival in Marsala, the cavernous edifice's flamboyant façade, wasn't completed until 1956. In the buildings immediately behind the church, Marsala's Tapestry Museum contains eight priceless tapestries of Flemish origin, dating back to the 16th century and depicting scenes such as the Capture of Jerusalem and the war fought between Titus and the Jews in 66-67 A.D.