Route to Erice

1) From Elimo to the Punic Walls
2) Historical Centre and Castle
3) The Castle and the Park
4) From Erice to Trapani via cableway

Historical Quote:
Sacred city to the Elimis, in ancient times Erice was center of a famous cult devoted to the goddess of the fertility: Venus Ericina, Astartis for the Phoenician, Aphrodite for the Greeks. Punic Fortress, during the Roman era it becomes less important. With the Arabs before and the Normans afterwards it turns remarkable again with the construction of the gates, the fortification of the walls. It’s the period of the Churces and the Cathedral. Only in 1935 Erice is named after the nowadays name, since until up to that moment it was "Mountain St. Giuliano."

Going out heading the left hand side from the Elimo, you can go through a little path descending   up to the Gate of Trapani, then to the right to the Plan of the Cathedral with the Bell tower (visit by charge) of the 14^th century. The inside of the church is newgothic. Going out to the right you can  cross Street Rabatà up to the Door Spada. From the Gate Carmine to the Gate Spada, in  Via Addolorata, you can see the rests of the Punic walls of 8^th century B.C.

Going out to the right from the Elimo you can go upward to Via Vittorio Emanuele till Piazza Umberto I. That is the historical centre of Erice, it is recommended to enter and to cross the small streets that you can cross, merging all of a sudden in the Middle Ages. The medieval plants and the forms of the buildings and the ones of the churches, in a huge amount in the small town, are "miraculously" intact. It’s also possible to purchase products of craftsmanship and memoirs of the visit and to taste the famous almond sweets (marzipan), well-known  in the world.

Once you reach Piazza Umberto, you can visit the Town Building, with the Museum Cordici; then climbing up to Via Cordici, you arrive in the beautiful Piazza Saint Domenico with the church to him devoted; at the right hand side you can forward for Via Guarnotti where, other than  a beautiful arch and other more churches, you face the famous seat of  “Ettore Majorana” Centre, a post-university institute among the most famous in the world. More often Nobel prizes attend the lectures there, which comprehend such subjects as  genetics, archaeology, biophysics up to agronomy. This school doesn't issue certificates, but it guarantees the best in all the fields of the to knowledge. Now and then it is possible to visit the atrium of the building and the seismological centre which there lies. Continuing for Piazza St. Giuliano with the homonym church and a brief stretch of Via Roma, you can climb to the Castle whose description is  postponed to the next itinerary.

If you want to arrive as soon as possibile at the Castle, and so at  the beautiful Park and Agrden, you just need to go out from the Elimo’s and head to the right hand side, to walt Via San Francesco, a paved narrow street, paved as well as the other streets in Erice. Among blooming balconies where kitten lazily doze, you emerge in the square opposite to the Castle, where you have arrived after having walked along the panoramic road which goes from Trapani in the inside fino till Monte Cofano and San Vito lo Capo. You arrive to the Castle of Venus  from the civic villa called  "the Garden of the Balio" named after the homonym Towers which stud the park and that once were connected through drawbridges. Anchors besides the top of the peak the archaeological zone of the ancient acropolis.

A beautiful Fountain of Venus, surrounded by ruins of punic buildings, for sure a good subject for your photos, other than the magnificent square in front of the Castle, where you can shoot panoramic pictures of incomparable beauty.

Heading towards the left hand side  from Elimo Hotel, Via Vittorio Emanuele goes up to the Gate of Trapani, amid stores of local handicrafts.

Passing  through the wonderful Gate, you have to cross the Parking and heading to the opposite, where the Cableways station is, re opened completely new in 2005. In a few minutes it will drive you to Trapani. If you do this at nightfall, you will have a great view: other than the marvellous sight to Trapani and its Saline (Salt Deposit,) over the sea, like if they are dangling in the air, the Egadi isles rise up: Favignana, Levanzo and back, Marettimo: as to mean that... Heaven ends there!