In Castellamare di Golfo we wanted to take the train to Trapani to cut off the North-Western corner of Sicily which is quite hilly, but when the train conductor saw our bike, she decided inmediately she was not even willing to give it a try.... so we spent the night in Castellamare and did a bit of mountain strech the next day, luckily again traffic was light so we could stay on the main road and still enjoy the trip. 

 

South of Trapani there are plenty of Salines, some of them still in use, both Trapani and Marsala have Museums on the topic but inspite of signs indicating all year opening hours there was no one to be seen...

 

We then tried our luck with a cycling path, yes there are cycling paths in Sicily but the signs are incredibly rare and they do not usually indicate in which direction the path leads, so after 10 km and pushing the bike over a stretch of beach we were 500 m further South than we started out...

The small cities in Western Sicily all seemed pretty relaxed, not entirely touristic yet and of course practically without tourists at this time of the year, except for the ocasional - often German -  tourist in a campervan.  Yet, unlike some of the towns on the French Atlantic Coast they still have a life of their own.

Travelling off season means we get some incredibly good deals renting rooms or entire appartments occasionally for as little as 20€.