The Rock

Kirsty and I took a steep stroll up to the top of La Rocca. The walls around the top and the castle were built about 1100 AD, and the Temple of Diana was built much earlier, about the 5th or 6th Century BC. The castle grounds are about 1000 feet higher up than the main walls that encircle the rock.There isn't much left of the castle but a few walls and a couple of small buildings, but the views from the top are superb!!

Here is La Rocca, looming over Cefalu. The walls roughly follow the areas where there isn't vegetation  and the castle is on the very top.

The view up to the walls.

1st gate.

1st Gate arch.

Above the 1st gate.

The next few pictures are various shots of the walls.

 Very thick walls!

2nd gate (leading to ovens and grain buildings).

Church of St. Anna, close to the ovens and Temple of Diana.

 View of the new port from the castle walls.

Castle walls.

 Part of the castle.

 North walls.

 More north walls.

 View down onto old Cefalu from the north wall. The arrow is where we are staying.

 Closeup of where we are staying. Like a maze!

 These old grain storage areas are inside the walls, but below the castle.

 Closeup of the bread ovens next to the grain storage buildings.

Other side of large oven, showing two smaller ovens.

Temple of Diana.

 Entrance to the temple.

Inside the temple.

Kirsty's hand shows the size of some of the stones used to build the temple.

 Closeup of some of the mortar and rock used to build the temple.

 Don't know the purpose of the terra cotta outlines, but they are around some of the walls.

 View down to the Duomo.

Backyard of the Duomo.

Road towards the new port.

New port area.

 Cemetery from the Castle wall on the northeast side.

 View towards new Cefalu to the west.

Various types of wall construction:

 They still use these kind of brooms here!

View from the plaza up to the north walls.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of this fantastic rock!

Peace my friends!

La Dolce Vita - Cefalu!

Trapani and Cefalu are like night and day! A train ride a few hours east and we are living the sweet life! Here is a peek into life in Cefalu. We've only been here a few days and have much to explore and share. Enjoy!

We are walking on the beach towards Cefalu.

 View from the beach towards Naples.

 Kirsty walking on the beach.

Moi!

After leaving the beach, we walk up the Corso towards the Duomo Plaza.

The Duomo. More pictures of the Duomo in a later blog.

Across from the Duomo and turn left onto Via Mandralisca to our apartment.

Mandralisca.

From the street, into our courtyard.

 View of the courtyard from our apartment. It is only 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms, but we cope as best we can.

 We head down Madralisca onto Via Vittorio Emanuele towards the marina.

 138 steps from our courtyard and we are at the arch leading to the old marina.

 Through the arch. The marina is no  longer used to launch boats since they built a new port about a kilometer east of here.

 The marina sea wall is a great place to take in the sun in the afternoon.

 The view back from the sea wall towards Cefalu and "La Rocca" the big rock with medieval walls around the top. The ruins of a castle are up there as well. More on La Rocca once we get up there!

 Ruins of a tower over by the new port.

 Some sweets for Sharry!

 Often times the walls were made with the rubble from past buildings.

 This is a medieval wash room under Via Emanuelle. It is fed by a freshwater spring that empties on the other side of the wall into the sea.

 The rocks that look like headstones are what the clothes were scrubbed on.

The vegetables are soooo tasty here (and very inexpensive). I've never seen redder tomatoes!

Peace my friends!