Mazara del Vallo

Mazara del Vallo is a working port city on the south-west coast of Sicily, in the Trapani province, with one of the largest fishing fleets in Italy and a character shaped by centuries of crossing between Sicily and North Africa. Just 200km from Tunisia, the city was an important centre under Arab rule, when the island was divided into administrative valli that gave Mazara its name, and that heritage survives most vividly in the Casbah, a tangle of narrow lanes in the old centre with a genuinely Maghrebi atmosphere, decorated ceramics, and a living Tunisian community drawn by the fishing trade. The city's single most famous treasure is the Satiro Danzante, the Dancing Satyr, a superb Greek bronze of the 4th century BC, larger than life and caught mid-whirl, that was hauled up in a fisherman's net from the sea bed in 1998 and now has its own museum in the deconsecrated church of Sant'Egidio, where it is displayed with dramatic lighting. Beyond the satyr, visitors find a handsome Norman cathedral, baroque churches and squares, a palm-lined seafront, and the colourful spectacle of the fishing harbour, where trawlers unload and the catch is sold. A visit of around two hours suits the museum, the Casbah, and the waterfront, longer to linger over a seafood lunch of the famous red prawns and tuna. Mornings are best for the lively harbour and the cooler old lanes. Mazara sees fewer tourists than the headline Sicilian destinations, lending it an authentic, unhurried feel in this corner of western Sicily.