Salemi (a photo gallery)

March 22, 2023

From the Visit Sicily article on Salemi:

Salemi, perched on a hill in the Belice Valley amidst the changing green of vineyards and olive groves, clusters around the Norman-Swabian Castle. The village, with its medieval feel, is located in the centre of the province of Trapani and is delightful with its polished streets of light-coloured stone, like the good living room of the house.

The ancient Halyciae, as the town was called, has experienced all the historical events of the oldest settlements in Sicily. From the Elymians onwards, it was inhabited by Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths and Byzantines, peoples so ancient as to be legendary, but it owes its current name to the Arabs, from the word Salam, which means peace.

Salemi is classified as I Borghi più belli d'Italia (one of the most beautiful villages in Italy), which to be honest isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you start looking around. There are run down, broken walls and buildings everywhere you look, empty window frames open into space, buildings faced with fractured and peeling plaster and rusty scaffolding with unsightly tattered plastic draped from it flapping in the wind. It feels like a quite depopulated place, not much given over to tourism in spite of the many informational plaques you see throughout the historical center.

The ruined look is from the Devastating earthquake of 1968 that destroyed the previously beautiful old city, leaving it largely uninhabitable and driving most of the surviving inhabitants downhill to the sprawl that surrounds the base of the hill. Some rebuilding and renovation has occurred over the last fifty years, but in many ways wandering through its streets and alleys feels like a tour of an open air earthquake museum.

One of the most beautiful villages in Italy, but you have to use your imagination to see it.

Views of the surrounding countryside are stunning. Here we’re looking south, with the sea visible in the distance.

This plaza is controversial (see the linked article on the earthquake). It was built on the site of the ruined main church of the city.

We had company on our pre-dinner walk - this cheerful lab accompanied us everywhere we went for about a half hour. We were sorry we hadn’t brought treats. He probably would have appreciated Rachael’s chicken panini.

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Suzanne GibsonW0w, am I glad you got that new camera! Great pictures - Salemi looks like a paradise for photographing old doors.
Cool that you have the tilt screen. Mine has one, too, and it's very handy for getting low points of view when going into a deep squat is no longer an option.
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1 year ago

Keith AdamsIt's wonderful to see a camera back in your very capable hands. I hadn't fully appreciated how much extra value your photos add to the great prose of the posts, until I had to do without them for a couple days.
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1 year ago