Experience package
Private tour in western Sicily
Categories
Eight days to discover how many stories can hide inside a dish.
Trapani couscous will be our common thread across western Sicily, helping us understand its relationship with the Mediterranean.
We will follow the semolina and the catch, but also the salt that preserves, the wine that travelled beyond the sea, the tuna traps, the boats, the fishermen, the families' recipes and the cultural influences born along this coast.
We will taste it. We will learn to prepare it. We will enter the places from which its ingredients come. And in the end we will try to look at it no longer as a simple gastronomic speciality, but as a synthesis of the territory.
Arrival and check-in at the selected accommodation.
The journey will begin in front of the sea of San Vito Lo Capo.
We will get to know the town and its relationship with the Mediterranean, introducing couscous as a dish born from the meeting of different cultures.
At lunch or dinner we will meet fish couscous for the first time.
We will enter its vocabulary: semolina, mafaradda, couscoussière, incocciatura, broth, catch. Each word will become a clue to follow during the journey.
Overnight stay in the San Vito Lo Capo area.
Breakfast and departure by private vehicle.
We will reach Macari and the Monte Cofano area, observing one of the most representative landscapes of the western coast.
We will continue to Custonaci, entering a territory in which land and sea have coexisted for centuries.
We will then go down to Bonagia.
Through the history of the tuna trap we will learn about the role of the rais, the tonnaroti, the nets, the boats and the wait for the fish.
When possible, the experience will be accompanied by the voice of a person tied to local memory. The day will end with a gastronomic proposal devoted to the catch and the area's products. Overnight stay in the Trapani/Valderice area.
Breakfast and ascent to Erice.
We will enter the village and discover a cuisine apparently far from the sea.
Almond sweets, genovesi and preparations from the convent tradition will make us understand that Trapani's gastronomic culture is born from the meeting of different worlds.
When possible we will visit a craft workshop.
In the afternoon we will go down to Trapani.
We will get to know the historic centre, the harbour and the city's relationship with the sea.
The day may end with a dinner devoted to traditional Trapani cooking and the local catch.
Overnight stay in Trapani.
Breakfast and departure for Marsala.
Today the gesture that represents the whole journey will arrive.
We will meet a traditional cook or a chef tied to local cuisine.
In front of us we will find semolina, water and a mafaradda, the traditional terracotta vessel in which the semolina is worked.
Everyone will try to roll their own couscous.
We will learn how the grains are slowly born from the semolina and also follow the preparation of the broth and the catch.
Lunch will be the result of our work.
From this moment couscous will no longer be just something we have tasted. It will be something we have touched and built with our own hands.
In the afternoon, a visit to the historic centre of Marsala.
Dinner at leisure and overnight stay in Marsala.
Breakfast.
We will reach the Stagnone salt pans.
We will discover the path of sea water through the pans and understand the role of sun, wind and human work.
Salt will be linked to our journey through a precise theme: the preservation of the catch and of food.
Depending on the period we may take part in an experience devoted to salt harvesting or tasting.
In the afternoon we will enter a historic winery.
Tasting and return. At sunset we will go back to the landscape of the Stagnone.
Overnight stay in Marsala.
Breakfast and transfer to the port. Boarding for Favignana.
We will visit the Former Florio Plant of the Favignana and Formica Tuna Traps, entering the world of the tuna trap and tuna processing.
When possible we will meet a fisherman or an operator tied to the island's maritime culture. Alternatively, conditions permitting, we can take a boat excursion along the coasts of Favignana.
Lunch will be devoted to the local catch and, in the planned configuration, we may find a version of fish couscous again.
Return to the mainland and overnight stay in the Marsala area.
Breakfast and departure for Mazara del Vallo.
The Kasbah will let us enter the heart of a city in which the meeting between Sicily and North Africa is visible in the streets, the people and the cooking.
We will then reach the harbour.
When possible we will meet a fisherman or a figure tied to the Mazara fishing fleet.
We will talk about crews, routes, catch, Red Prawn and days spent far from the coast. We will also visit the Museum of the Dancing Satyr.
Lunch will be devoted to seafood cooking and the flavours of the Mediterranean.
Return and overnight stay in Marsala or Mazara del Vallo depending on the configuration.
Breakfast.
The last day will not need to add a new ingredient. It will serve to put together again those we have met.
We may devote it to a closing walk in Marsala, a market, a gastronomic shop or a meeting with someone who still keeps family recipes and preparations.
The last lunch - What is really inside a couscous?
The fish will remind us of Favignana, Mazara, Trapani and Bonagia. The salt will take us back to the Stagnone. The semolina will take us back to our hands inside the mafaradda. The spices and the broth will remind us that the Mediterranean has never had a single culture.
A territory inside a mafaradda.
At the end, transfer to the agreed location and end of services.
This is not a tour built to establish which couscous is the best.
There are different territories, families, fishermen, seasons and ways of telling a tradition. In the end we will know that inside Trapani couscous there is not only semolina, fish and broth. There are the two shores of the Mediterranean, the hands of families, the work of fishermen, the wind of the salt pans, the boats, the harbours and a story made of encounters.
7 overnight stays in selected accommodation between San Vito Lo Capo, Trapani/Valderice, Marsala and, depending on the configuration chosen, Mazara del Vallo.
Activities at sea and connections to Favignana are subject to sea and weather conditions. Experiences linked to fishing and the catch follow availability and seasonality. Salt harvesting is possible only in the period set by the operators. Meetings with fishermen, producers, cooks and local witnesses depend on their availability.
Tell us the dates of your trip and the number of travellers: we will check the availability of the experiences, the accommodation and the private services and prepare a proposal built around the needs of your trip.
Trapani Couscous