Salemi & Selinunte

My friend Tom and my wife are visiting me in Sicily. The first day together offers a good, powerful Scirocco and a bright, cool sunny day on the beach. I’m out kiting for almost three hours in total. Tom has unfortunately forgotten a lot in the four years since his beginner’s kite course in Egypt.

During his course, I realise for the first time what a hell of a sporting achievement the kite instructors here are. Running after the student for 100 metres dozens of times in soft mud up to 30 cm deep is extremely exhausting and frustrates Tom too.

The wind goes to sleep for the next five days. We tour western Sicily. Salemi is in the centre of the island, just 25 km as the crow flies from Lo Stagnone. Thanks to countless deep potholes on the country roads through the hinterland, it still takes three quarters of an hour to get there. Countless wild rubbish tips are lined up for kilometres on either side. The wind scatters all the plastic waste in the vineyards. Rubbish seems to be the Sicilian mafia’s last line of business. It makes you sad.

Sometimes the country roads in the hinterland turn into muddy tracks with 20cm deep ruts and large stones. Only on the most miserable gravel tracks are you allowed to drive 90 km/h from time to time – on good country roads, the limit is almost always 50 km/h. I love off-road – but with up to five hours of super concentrated pothole slalom a day, I’m usually pretty flat in the evening.

Salemi is situated on a 450 metre high mountain with a steep drop to one side. The dilapidated houses of the old town cling to the slopes. Every second house is for sale. A street dog is the only tourist to guide us for over an hour through the narrow, steep alleyways of the old town. At the top is a castle from the 13th century. Half a nave without a roof glows red in the sunset. The Romans founded Salemi. The Arabs conquered it. The Bourbons drove them out. Today, Salemi seems to have been abandoned by everyone.

The next day, a surprisingly good Scirocco arrives. We head to the wavespot Puzziteddu on the south coast. Only a little of the predicted storm arrives over the waves, which are up to two metres in size today. A few locals play with the breakers in the light wind. I’ve somehow run out of steam from the previous two hours of pothole rallying in the hinterland.

We drive another half hour to the archaeological sites of Selinunte. They are an absolute hit. The area is so large that many visitors book a transfer train to the site. We enthusiastically walk a few kilometres through 2600 years of history. I have been to many archaeological sites around the Mediterranean. Many are overcrowded and most are overpriced for what you see (stones in the meadows).

Selinunte is different. Founded as a western outpost of the Greeks in Sicily in the 7th century BC, the city flourished for just 200 years under constant threat from the powerful Sicilian city of Segesta. Clumsy political alliances led to its complete destruction by the Carthaginians in 409 BC. 16.000 of the 25,000 inhabitants died in just 10 days of siege.

The victorious Carthaginians rebuilt Selinunte, but it never regained its original size. Whether it was finally destroyed by the Romans in 250 BC or later by a tsunami is still disputed today. My guess is the Romans. The most important temples are about 40 metres above the sea.

From 1925, numerous buildings were excavated and two of the many temples were rebuilt in large parts. At 50 by 110 metres, the Temple of Zeus was one of the three largest temples ever built by the Greeks. It lies in ruins near the entrance. Even on the ground, it is still very impressive.