Marsala: Sweet 'n' salty

September 7, 4:40 PMItaly Culture & Travel ExaminerLucia Mauro

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Salt flats of Marsala, Sicily.

Mountains are such a common sight throughout Sicily that when my husband Joe and I finally made our way to the flatlands of Marsala, we thought we had fallen off the western edge of the island. Most recognizable for its sweet, port-like cooking wine of the same name, Marsala sits along a geological phenomenon: salt flats. While traveling west from Palermo through Trapani with a group of our Palermitani friends and a caravan of other acquaintances visiting Sicily, we felt like we had entered another dimension.

The salt flats, which date back to Phoenician times, stand poised like living oil paintings. Restored windmills still pump water and grind the crystals against scattered puddles and mounds of glistening white salt. Western Sicily's warm temperatures and favorable winds (including the dust-flecked scirocco from Africa) created ideal conditions for the sodium-based seasoning staple to flourish. Gastronomes also have the opportunity to visit museums dedicated to the salt-making process. The same with the abundant Marsala wineries - actually established by an 18th century Englishman named John Woodhouse and continued by the Florio, and other notable, families.

But our group was on an archaeological quest. We wanted to view the nearly fully preserved Punic War Ship that rests inside a temperature-controlled arcade at the Regional Archaeological Museum Baglio Anselmi, located off a pretty flower-lined, sea-fronting road. The skeletal frame, which resembles the rib cage of a brontosaurus, is a Carthaginian warship believed to have sunk in 241 BC during the final battle of the First Punic War in which Rome defeated Carthage. During excavations in the 1970s, it remarkably still contained the bones of some of its passengers and a rich collection of amphorae. The wooden ship is believed to have been essentially embalmed by the submerged sand in which it lodged off the coast of Marsala.

The whole area is rich in ancient Roman history. Once known as Lilybaeum, Marsala served as a prosperous port and symbol of Rome's naval might. Besides the Punic War Ship, the museum also contains a substantial collection of Roman copies of classical Greek statues, as well as fragments of funerary monuments that painstakingly detail the milestones of ancient citizens' lives and how they died - their legacy forever etched into fissured marble slabs.

Early Christianity also flourished here - replacing the Sybil's oracle (still visible through a small door) with a hiding place for Christians in the 4th century AD. Nearby stands the Duomo, or Church of St. John, and the religious theme continues at the Renaissance Flemish Tapestry Museum.

Marsala also marked the landing point for Giuseppe Garibaldi and his "Thousand" Red Shirts, symbolizing the concrete advancement of Italian Unification in 1860. Those blood-red uniforms now hang in the Civic Museum, together with countless Risorgimento-era memorabilia.

Our group stopped at a tavola calda for a selection of arancine (rice balls filled with ground beef and peas); fried calamari; and slices of pizza topped with black olives and tuna. Just outside, we couldn't contain our laughter over the graphic hulking statue before our eyes: the Fountain of Wine, with a naked lady at its center (certain parts barely covered by a bunch of grapes) reveling shamelessly as a donkey kicks back its legs. It serves as a potent reminder that Marsala will forever be linked to its sweet oenological claim to fame - with some salty humor on the side.

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