CITY OF MARSALA

Marsala is located in a similar distance to the spot as Trapani, just in the other way – south.
These two cities of comparable sizes differ quite a lot.
Marsala is calm and charming. You can see remains of old city walls (the city grew on the ruins of the ancient Carthage Lilybaeum), beautiful gates, the cathedral, numerous old churches, intimate squares, gardens and other alleys.
There is also a museum of contemporary art in a former monastery, a municipal archive in an old church, sixteenth-century tapestries in the Museo Degli Arazzi Fiamminghi and the famous phoenician ship from 241 bc. in the archaeological museum of Baglio Anselmi.

The charm of the city is added by numerous tiny wine shops, shops with local products and restaurants with several tables on the sidewalk. At the same time, the city is not full of tourists.

On Friday and Saturday evening we recommend having a walk to the fish market (Antico Mercato  – LOCATION).
While during the day – as its name suggests – it’s a place where people sell and buy sea creatures, at the weekend evenings it turns into a specific party place. Small bars serve drinks and shots, chairs and tables are arranged in the alleys and between them, in far too small distances from each other, street bands play and sing. From Italian ballads to rock, some do it better and some do it worse. People are dancing between the tables, all in the scent of the morning fish market. Interesting thing.

Another good place is a bit hidden behind the church and old olive trees. It’s a square with two bars (LOCATION).
One is Portale Bottega, aspiring to metropolitan style and serving a large selection of drinks and wines. Next to it there is the Magazzino bar serving craft beer. This square, especially on summer weekends, is full to the brim with local youth. It’s a nice field to observe the local culture in its natural environment.

MARSALA WINE

It is difficult to say whether Marsala is more recognizable as a city or as a wine that originates from this area. Anyway, being in Marsala, it’s worth visiting one of the local vineyards and tasting the regional wine (below there are examples of some local cellars).

The history of marsala wine began in the XVIII century thanks to English merchants. One of them, John Woodhouse, enchanted himself with the local wine and saw a chance to enrich himself on the wave of popularity of the portuguese porto and spanish sherry.
English began to acquire ad export barrels of wine, called marsala since then.
Marsala is a reinforced, mainly sweet and white wine produced primarily from grapes grillo, catarratto, inzolia and damaschino. Because of the addition of wine spirit, alcohol content is 17% and more. Marsala is traditionally served as an aperitif, dessert wine and with dried fruits, cookies, desserts with cream and with strong cheeses.

Cellars in Marsala:

fina
cantine florio
carlo pellegrino
donnafugata
planeta

Distance from the spot: 14 km
travel time: 20 min.