Basolati and Venule

The paving is the original paving of Erice’s streets: from the oldest, formed only of stones or with simple guides, to the one in panels designed in the nineteenth century by the engineer Girolamo Varjo and made of polished slabs, in elongated hexagon shape, called catene (chains), which frame the stones both to hold the inner part and to create effective perspective effects, giving the street an evocative appearance.

The rows of slabs sometimes become thicker to ease the passage of wheeled vehicles.

Characteristic of Erice are the very small streets, the so-called venule, in Sicilian dialect “vanedde”, narrow alleys, also with steps, created for defence and to moderate the force of the winds. Evocative are the glimpses of the sea that can be seen in some of them.