Mazara del Vallo

Mazara del Vallo is a beautiful spot by the sea, but our hotel has detracted a bit from the stay. The elevator allows only one person at a time, slowly, and we are on the second floor (European second, meaning what would be the third floor in the U.S.). So we are getting our steps in! Our room was very hot and muggy last evening, because the air conditioning had failed (it got fixed before bedtime). Water in the shower barely made it to lukewarm this morning. And the coffee machine at breakfast was turning out weak brew. Other than that, it's a great place to stay.

The schedule called for a walking tour of the town. We actually toured only a small portion -- the old Arab "casbah." Our guide was a young man, a second generation Tunisian born and raised in Mazara. Hosni spoke very little English, so our trip experience leader, Flaminia acted as translator. Near as we could tell, Hosni has no professional qualifications. But he is a big history buff, and he appeared to be quite knowledgeable.

We walked past the Norman Arch, a ruin from an 11th century fortress near the seashore. And we walked past the Cathedral, though it was not open. It's a baroque-style building, but a cathedral has existed on the site since the Normans took over the local mosque that stood here when they conquered in 1072 C.E. We spent a bit of time in the town square, which is bounded by the Cathedral, a former seminary, a bishop's palace, and a fairly new, 20th century city hall that looks a bit out of place here.

The casbah's basic layout is the same as it was a thousand years ago, but of course the buildings are much newer. Like all such places, it is characterized by narrow, winding streets in no discernible pattern. The idea was that the locals would know their way around the maze, but invaders would not. Residents fleeing an invading army would have plenty of corners to duck behind, shielding them from arrows. Invaders, confused by dead ends and twisting alleyways could be trapped for slaughter by defenders. An extra benefit of the narrow passages is shade from the hot sun, even when no one was invading.

Mazara's casbah had become a haven for Tunisian immigrants because the rent was cheap and it was reminiscent of similar towns in North Africa. It had also become a hotbed for drug dealers and other criminals, because the same features that frustrated Medieval invaders make it difficult for police cars to navigate.

Some years ago, Mazara elected a new mayor who happened to be an artist. The mayor set about to transform the casbah into a tourist area by installing a lot of CCTV cameras to watch where police cars cannot go, and by inviting local artists to make the entire area a gallery. Ceramic tiles are some of the most unique art of the area, and there are hundreds of them in the casbah now, along with paintings, murals, and sculptures.

There is a tradition of art here. We visited the church of St. Francis, which is plain on the outside, but a wonderful display of rococo plaster sculptures, frescoes, and oil paintings on the interior. Unfortunately, a great deal of it has been water damaged over the years, and the entire church is badly in need of restoration.

This is not the mosque, but just a richly decorated house.

Just down the block is a simple house that has been turned into a local mosque. Despite the meeting of cultures and the lower economic fortunes of the immigrant population, the casbah is now a very safe place to live and to visit.

Next, we visited a very small but quite new and modern museum of recovered ancient shipwreck artifacts. The centerpiece of the collection was a bronze statue of The Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo. The bronze was brought up in the nets of a local fishing boat in 1998.

Hosni's portion of the tour ended, and we were introduced to a retired banker, Antonio, who has devoted himself to helping facilitate the art displays in the casbah, as well as to the restoration of a 19th century theater or opera house that is now used once again for performances. We went to the theater and had two performances -- Antonio put an accompaniment soundtrack from his phone through speakers and gave us a karaoke performance of singing a couple of Italian songs. The second performance was the introduction of "Capitan Ciccio," who was the captain of the fishing boat that snagged the Dancing Satyr statue. It's been his claim to fame ever since, and though he spoke no English and needed Flaminia to translate, he told us the story of the discovery at great length. We both fought to stay awake.

Just down the street from the theater is an "art store" (souvenir shop) owned by Antonio and his wife, where "Capitan Ciccio" gave everyone in the group a postcard with his autograph, whether we wanted it or not (we later learned that his name is Francesco Adragna, but the fishing boat was named Capitan Ciccio, so it's the name he goes by). This all seems a bit lame, and it was, but it got to be rather funny.

We were divided into groups of five or six for our home-hosted lunch. My heart sank when we were assigned to the home of "Capitan Ciccio" to be our lunch host. But it actually turned out well. Francesco, a widower, wasn't on stage for this part of the day. He and his girlfriend have a lovely home and are good cooks. His girlfriend's daughter was there, a university student who spoke flawless English and was a charming translator. We had a very nice time and a good meal.

After a bit of a respite back at the hotel, we set out for an evening walk on our own. Mazara has a lively pedestrian street, and then we continued down one of the main drags that was busy with shops of various kinds. When we decided to turn toward the water once more, we found ourselves on the winding streets of the casbah, some of which were familiar from the morning. We managed not to get lost, like hostile invaders, and found our way to the sea. We ended up at a sidewalk cafe, clearly the only tourists in the place, where we enjoyed a pleasant drink, the sunset, and a bit of people watching before calling it a night.