From Marettimo we hopped to Favignana, the next of the Egadi
Islands and thence to Marsala in Sicily proper.
We decided to make this our first port of call on the mainland for no
better reason than that it has a wonderfully romantic name. It derives from the Arabic “Marsah-el-Allah”,
literally “the Port of God”. The fact
that it is also the home of Marsala wine was, of course, incidental. We spent a few days there sightseeing and had
the good fortune to make friends with two real Sicilians, Arnaldo and Mathilde
who are spending August sailing to Pantelleria and Tunisia. Arnaldo is a cameraman for RAI, the Italian
state TV Company and Mathilde is a freelance, mainly unemployed,
architect. Arnaldo has some vines down
in the far South West of the island and the bilges of their boat “Arne and
Matt” are stuffed with the strong red wine which is their product. My memory of the two evenings we spent with
them is a little hazy, although I can remember commiserating with Arnaldo
because the annual harvest produces a paltry five hundred litres (hic). After Marsala we headed North to San Vito lo
Capo and then East, arriving in Palermo on the 14th August, where we
have been sweating it out since. Friday 15 August 2003
The Port of God
From Marettimo we hopped to Favignana, the next of the Egadi
Islands and thence to Marsala in Sicily proper.
We decided to make this our first port of call on the mainland for no
better reason than that it has a wonderfully romantic name. It derives from the Arabic “Marsah-el-Allah”,
literally “the Port of God”. The fact
that it is also the home of Marsala wine was, of course, incidental. We spent a few days there sightseeing and had
the good fortune to make friends with two real Sicilians, Arnaldo and Mathilde
who are spending August sailing to Pantelleria and Tunisia. Arnaldo is a cameraman for RAI, the Italian
state TV Company and Mathilde is a freelance, mainly unemployed,
architect. Arnaldo has some vines down
in the far South West of the island and the bilges of their boat “Arne and
Matt” are stuffed with the strong red wine which is their product. My memory of the two evenings we spent with
them is a little hazy, although I can remember commiserating with Arnaldo
because the annual harvest produces a paltry five hundred litres (hic). After Marsala we headed North to San Vito lo
Capo and then East, arriving in Palermo on the 14th August, where we
have been sweating it out since. 
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