9/21 & 9/22 Wed & Thur - WE FIND A XIII CENTURY CASTLE

Our Plan was to go into Castellammare de Golfo, a larger town east of Scopello.  We had 4 things to do: get gas, get groceries, get money from ATM and go to SoHo Lounge for breakfast and free Wi-Fi.  Well, we got gas & groceries only and not there!  I am still a bit skittish to drive these larger town streets.  We tried it then beat a hasty retreat to the outskirts where we got our groceries for our first home cooked meal to have later that evening.  Gas getting was easy as we went to one with an attendant.  John said these guys have a WAD of money as they give change right at end of service.  We will try it another day soon as we need cash!!

Thursday (9/22) we also decided not to go to the big city.  Instead we walked around the little hamlet of Scopello where we are staying about 5 miles out of town.  We sat and had gelato, me the Americano flavor (black cherry) and John had Fragola (strawberry).

This small town sits right on the coast with the Zingaro Nature Reserve .... CLICK>> TO READ MORE ABOUT ZINGARO  .... We did not walk it today but will come more equipped another.  Can't say how far we will get but do our best.

We then went back to a small market to complete our grocery needs.  Last night I cooked the big chicken in the photo above.  Next meal is to take the left over chicken and add it to noodles, butter, cream cheese, mushrooms and vegetables.  We want to eat in as often as we can, making the dining out more special.  Or, it can be said we're just cheap, LOL ....  We find that a pastry in the morning and something light at noon with perhaps some fruit and cheese mid afternoon seems to suffice us.  Who knows, I may have had to come thousands of miles to actually lose some weight!!

Yesterday, coming back from our aborted trip, I ignored the Garmin (okay, I missed the turn the voice said to take) and we were on a new adventure.  From what we could tell after, we were taken on a road on the other side of the valley from our home.  We came around the top of the mountain on our side and we came upon an old castle that is just up the road from us a bit.  Our plan was to go back on purpose which we did today in the late afternoon.

The castle was originally built in the XIII century and expanded thru the years.  From the info in the above picture, this arched door way is original to it's date of construction.  The inscription above is to honor the visit of Ferdinand 11, in 1825 King of Two Sicilies who ruled from Spain.  Naples and Sicily were merged, despite Sicilian protests, in 1816, when Ferdinand I styled himself officially king of the Two Sicilies. Revolts occurred in 1820 and 1848-49 and were mercilessly suppressed; the bombardments of Messina (1848) and Palermo (1849) earned Ferdinand II the nickname "King Bomba." In 1860, Garibaldi conquered the island, which then voted to join the kingdom of Sardinia.

 There are people living in the homes around the courtyard. A man & his wife sold me my straw hat and another woman sold me dried tomatos. I took pictures of them and thus the inside of their homes. On the one with just the woman you can see the original curve of a turret for the early castle as a wall in her home. 

More of our visit can be seen in the slideshow offered here.