They have been farming the salt flats of Sicily since long before the Romans arrived on the island and they still are – the tourist industry here, you see, is not the most buoyant in Italy…
Few tourists venture to the far west of Sicily. Even those travellers intrepid enough to leave the north coast resort of Cefalù for a trip to Palermo, a drive to Corleone, or a bus trip to Agrigento will be unlikely to consider a journey to the far west coast, to Marsala or Trapani. The truth is that there isn’t a lot to see and do here. There’s no bustling city to bristle the senses, no village made famous by one of the greatest films of all time (though none of it was actually shot there), and no ancient ruins to clamber up to and over. Just a town where they make a famous fortified wine, another town with an international airport, and an expanse of flat coastal land where they mine a lot of salt. It is telling indeed that the only direct airline service from the UK to Trapani (Ryanair from Manchester) is no more. It’s just been cancelled. It was in our Flight Guide (p.94) last month but this month it’s not. All gone. People don’t want to go and see salt flats it seems, even if they do have beautiful old windmills on them. Certainly not enough people to fill an aeroplane every week. And so now, we are sad to report, if you do want to see the historic salt production area of western Sicily, you’ll have to fly to Palermo (from Dublin, Gatwick or Stansted) and hire a car there. Sorry, salt fans. Especially those of you from Manchester.
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