Precariously perched atop Monte San Giuliano, the wonderfully preserved medieval walled town of Erice offers an opportunity to step back in time at 751 metres above sea-level.
Despite not being quite as pretty as our lofty expectations and experiences of southern Italy had led us to imagine, it is probably still the most unique place we visited in Sicily. Accessible via an edge-of-your-seat ascent up a narrow hairpinned mountain road (or a relatively more sedate cable car ride), Erice is steeped in the myth and conquest of long gone powers, offers breathtaking vistas over Trapani, the coast, and the Mediterranean from a fairytale castle carved into rock, and the chance to indulge in too sweet treats at the island's most famous patisserie.
Our post will give you all the practical advice on visiting Erice (pronounced EHR-ee-chay), whether from your base in Trapani or elsewhere in western Sicily, as well as a healthy sprinkling of inspiration to navigate its pristine labrynthine cobbled streets and archways.
This is our travel guide to Erice.
How To Get To Erice
We will start with the dull bit.
Some of you may be planning your trip to Sicily right now, have read a little bit about Erice already, and perhaps thinking that you should spend a night or two there since it's so highly talked about.
Unfortunately, we don't think that's the best idea. Although very popular and a deserved feature on most western Sicily itineraries, Erice really is quite small and a little inaccessible. So, unless you specifically want to spend 1-3 full days exploring within the hilltop town, our recommendation is to instead use the nearby lovely coastal town of Trapani (30 minutes, 14 kms away) as your base to visit both Erice and the glorious island of Favignana on separate day trips.
You have three ways to get to Erice:
By Car
For those of you doing a Sicily road trip with a rental car, the winding drive up and down the narrow mountain roads offers up spectacular views and an exhilirating driving experience (depending on whether you like hairpin bends and blind corners or not). From Trapani, it's about a 30 minute drive up to Erice.
The town is pretty much pedestrianised, so all visitors need to park before entering the town to explore on foot. The easiest place to park, which we recommend, is the large parking area next to Porta Trapani (Google Maps), which is one of three old entrance gates to enter the walled town.
There's a parking ticket machine with English instructions where you insert your licence plate details and pay, but note that you have to pay in advance for the amount of time you want, so just make sure you give yourself plenty of allowance here (at least 4 hours, probably more). Bring change too - prices in summer 2019 were €1 for 30 minutes, €2 for the first hour and €1 for each following hour. One little tip is to always take a picture of your ticket before placing it clearly in your car, just in case forget the time you have to get back by!
The parking lot was quite empty when we arrived at 3 p.m. but full when we left at 8.45 p.m. If it's full, there are other parking spots by Porta Carmine, Porta Spada, on Viale Conte Pepoli, and Via Cusenza - some of which may offer free parking / parcheggio gratuito - but the one we used was large and most easily accessible if you're driving up from Trapani.
Read Later | 15 Essential Things To Know Before A Driving in Sicily
The Erice Cable Car / Funivia
Alternatively, you can leave the car in Trapani and opt to take the cable car to Erice. With a journey time of just 10 minutes, it offers up panoramic views as well as a memorable experience.
The start station is on the outskirts of Trapani at SP31 per Erice Via Capua (Google Maps), so you can either walk, drive, or take bus line 203 from the centre of town. You can find further information on bus lines to the cable car station in Trapani here.
Cable car tickets cost €5.50 one-way, €9 return. The season timetable can be viewed in English on the company’s website here - note that they usually only operate a half-day on Mondays and will not run in cases bad weather or high winds.
At the end of the cable car ride, you'll arrive at the station outside the Porto Trapani entranceway to Erice.
If you have a rental car, but prefer to take the cable car to Erice, you can simply use the paid parking at the cable car station in Erice.
By Bus
The third option is to take the public bus from Trapani to Erice.
Operated by AST, it takes about 45 minutes however please do be aware of scheduled departure and arrival times for the specific day before you attempt travel (especially on Sundays). Unfortunately we don't have specific information on the timetable to share here but do let us know if you have and we can update.
Things To Do in Erice
. . .
Visit The Castle of Venus
The Venus Castle dominates the south eastern slope and skyline of Erice.
Built by the Normans in the 12th century, much of it is in ruins but its ramparts remain an imposing presence and affirm the long-standing defensive importance of the town.
You can visit the Venus Castle (Google Maps) for €4 - if your budget is tight though, don't worry too much about skipping this as seeing the castle from the outside is fine for most.
Pretty little Torretta Pepoli, which resembles a chess piece in parts and is a little further down the mountain and overshadowed by Venere, allows Erice to claim two castles. Astoundingly built upon a rock by Count Agostino Pepoli in the late nineteenth century, it served initially as a gathering place for men of art, music and culture. Restored in 2014, it's quite a steep walk down and up from it and we actually didn't visit it during our day-trip - do let us know in the comments if you think it's worthwhile!
A real highlight of exploring the castle area of Erice, beyond the castles obviously, is the Garden of Balio / Giardino del Balio (Google Maps). It’s free to walk around with lots of shaded areas and affords absolutely spectacular views over Sicily. There's also a small cafe within the gardens if you need a little break, or want some lunch.
One thing to note about exploring the castles of Erice is that there are multiple different viewpoints of them depending upon which or how many of the little lanes you take to approach or depart it, so just keep your eyes open!
Get Lost in The Cobblestone Streets
When you arrive at Porto Trapani, one of the three old threshold gates to Erice, you’ll see a little sign listing places of interest and showing a red route (the 4km ‘long tourist circuit’) and a blue route (the 3km ‘short tourist circuit’).
Our preference, given Erice’s compact size and triangular layout, was to simply explore its labrynthine grey cobblestone streets and get lost on our own.
Now, Erice is pretty, but it is certainly not the prettiest old town we visited in Sicily. That isn’t to take a shot at it or put you off, but simply to share our perspective - and as anybody who has spent time in Italy knows, when it comes to pretty places, it’s very much a case of grading on a scale!
With that said however, we still very much enjoyed our time walking its streets, particularly following our nose down impossibly narrow little back alleys and channels to see where they would lead us, and gazing upon the simplicities of Sicilian life in all their photogenic glory.
Don’t miss a stroll down the special Via Gian Filippo Guarnotti, home to both La Pentolaccia and Caffé San Rocco restaurants, nor the delightful Via Vittorio Emanuele which plays host to many of the town’s touristic offerings. Oh, and be sure to make a point of visiting all three entrance gates.
That is not one of the three entrance gates by the way, but still damn pretty!
The soul of any town is in the piazza, and making a beeline to Piazza della Loggia to rest up and indulge in an Aperol Spritz at Ristorante Nuovo Edelweiss and a bit of people watching (particularly of the old boys sitting outside their social club) is always going to be a good idea.
It’s in the main square that you’ll also find Museo Comunale Antonio Cordici, the municipal museum, with exhibits chronicling Erice’s past, as well as a variety of art and archeological artefacts discovered in the region. English speakers are advised to pick up a folder from reception with additional translations as all signage is in Italian.
There is also a cute little cafe in Piazza San Domenico, outside the church, which is a more intimate spot than the piazza.
The History & Myths of Erice
The settlement was once known by the ancient name of Eryx, named for the son of "either the god Poseidon or of Aphrodite and the hero Boutes / Brutes" in Greek mythology.
Due to its longstanding historical presence and importance, both defensively and with its associations to the Greek gods, Erice has passed from the Elymian people through to the Phoenicians, the Spartans, the Romans, and the Normans. Somewhat remarkably, fortifications and defensive walls built over 3,000 years are still standing in the northwestern part of town.
It was also the home of an important Roman temple to Venus - the goddess of love, sex, and fertility - but this has all but disappeared to the various eras of ownership, conquest and change. The resplendent Castello di Venere / Castle of Venus, which we talked about above, actually sits on the temple site and continues to bear her name!
According to legend, Eryx was also buried on or near this site after losing in a boxing match to Hercules (which is fair enough I guess, Hercules was pretty strong after all).
For more detail on the ancient history of Erice, read this post and this post.
Visit The Churches
A trip to Italy always coincides with visits to beautiful old cathedrals and churches, many of which remain active as places of worship; Erice has a remarkable number of them per capita and per square metre. Thought not as opulent or grand as others you will visit in Sicily and on the mainland, they are still worth a visit - beginning with ‘Duomo di Erice’.
Also known as La Real Chiesa Madrice Insigne Collegiata, this impressive church dates back to the 14th Century, when it was built with the stones from the ancient Temple of Venus (yep, the same one we mentioned above). For an alternative viewpoint on the town, it’s possible for visitors to head up the bellower here. We didn’t get around to it, but we’d love to hear from you in the comments if you’d recommend it!
The Church Ticket | The majority of the town’s churches cost €1 or €2 to enter, but if you think you’d like to visit more than a couple, we’d recommend investing in the single €6 ticket. With this you can access the Duomo and its bell tower, as well as to the pale pinks facades and distinctively beautiful interiors of Chiesa di San Martino and Chiesa di San Giuliano, which dates from the year 1000. You can buy your tickets in person at Torre di Federico (Google Maps) next to the Duomo.
A Pastry Break
“In the early 1950s, Maria Grammatico and her sister were sent by their impoverished mother to the San Carlo, a cloistered orphanage in Erice. It was a Dickensian existence - beating sugar mixtures for six hours at a time, rising before dawn to prime the ovens, and surviving on an unrelenting diet of vegetable gruel. But it was here that Maria learned to make the beautifully handcrafted pastries that were sold to customers from behind a grille in the convent wall.”
Pasticceria Grammatico is possibly the most popular tourist attraction in Erice; given its fame, we had to loop back three times to the little shop on Vittoria Emanuele before we could get in and sample the sweet treats!
The reason is the story of Maria Grammatico.
Told in the book Bitter Almonds - that’s where the excerpt above comes from - Maria left the orphanage at 22 with little but her baking skills and her recipes, which allowed her to open this pastry shop in 1950.
Stopping for a sweet treat with a strong, dark espresso is a daily ritual for us in Italy, and we did eventually manage to make it into Pasticceria Grammatico on the third attempt. By that time, the shop had emptied out and we could take our time to choose from the selection of wonderfully named traditional Sicilian treats on offer like Lingua di Suocera (Mother-in-Law’s Tongue), Belli e Brutti (Beautiful and Ugly). Almonds are a big part of Sicilian desserts, and you’ll find them here in the Bocconcini (Almond Bites), the Cassata Siciliana, as well as the Belli e Brutti and others. The Genovesi, a ricotta-filled Sicilian pastry, is particularly famous here too.
We got a little selection of almond and non-almond curiosities, and were able to snag a small table at the back outside to rest up with our coffees for an half hour. As with many Italian pastries, they were really too sweet for our personal palate (hence why they should always be accompanied by a strong espresso!), but still very enjoyable!
Note that some of the pastries are sold per kilo, some sold per item. You can find the shop on here on Google Maps.
Drink in the Views over Sicily
On a very clear day, you can see Tunisia from Erice; on others, you will still enjoy one of the best views in Sicily.
From atop this mountain, you can gaze out towards and across fields of toasted gold, the curves of the Tyrrhenian coast of western Sicily, expansive silvery blues of the Med, caked salt pans, the Egadi Islands and the earthy toned and whitewashed clusters of Trapani.
There is quite literally a spectacular view in each and every direction, and we encourage you to follow the trails and winding alleys that criss-cross Erice in search of your favourite.
We visited in summer, and Erice was bathed in sunshine. However, due to its elevation, the town can often be enveloped in cloud or thick fog, referred to by locals as ‘the kisses of Venus’. Personally, we think that this could be kind of romantic (and we say that as people who have a natural propensity to visit locations on the rare day the weather just won’t cooperate) and add an extra layer of uniqueness to an already remarkable location. However, we do appreciate that it could be a bit of annoyance to those that have made the journey along those winding roads solely for the view.
Therefore, we’d definitely recommend checking the weather forecast before you visit!
Practical Tips to plan your visit
From how long you need in this little hilltop town, to some excellent accommodation options, here are a handful of practical tips to plan your visit to Erice.
How Long to Spend in Erice?
If you’re not sure how long to spend on a day trip in Erice, then we’d say 4 hours is probably the absolute minimum. If possible, we’d highly recommend visiting either early morning and staying until lunch or postponing your visit until the late afternoon - and the reason is two fold. Firstly, the views out over the surrounding region are easily at their most incredible when the sun is low in the sky (the so-called golden hour), and secondly, as with much of Italy, Erice tend to shut down in the middle of the day to allow respite from the heat. We were surprised upon leaving at how busy it became at night, and it seemed to largely be visiting Italians from the city or on holiday coming for the evening.
An added benefit to visiting later in the day is the potential to avoid the coach group and tours, of which there are many to this popular tourist attraction. Trust us when we say that the streets here are tiny, and not that fun to explore when negotiating a route with hordes of other people.
Accommodation Options in Erice
Although we recommend Erice as a day trip from Trapani, there are quite a few accommodation options if you wish to stay longer. Il Carmine Dimora Storica is highly rated hotel, whilst Residence Erice Pietre Antiche has several well-reviewed private apartments in the centre. There are also some stunning little Airbnbs in Erice - you can view them here.
If you are planning on staying at an apartment or hotel in Erice, it’s a good idea to confirm the parking situation (as mentioned, there is free parking as well as paid parking, but it’s very likely you will not be able to take your car straight to the apartment as the whole town is a ZTL area).
Safety For the Drive Up and Down
Do please be cautious on the road up and down if you’re driving. There are one or two places where you can safely and responsibly pull over and park for photos of the views, but do not attempt to stop for photos on any other stretch of road. Be aware of the large buses who also use the road and, if you’re a nervous driver, it’s probably best to leave before it gets dark.
If you’re planning your route for the island, then check out our Sicily road trip itinerary.
