Map of Sicily - Erice

Erice - little town is of great interests to tourists and rises at the top at 751m / 2463 ft of the moutain with the same name, in a setting with spectaluar landscape and views. Erice classical Eryx is two faced; there is the bright, sunny face that smiles during the long, hot summer days and there is also the mask of winter when, shrouded in m ist, the town seems to hark back to its mytical origins, leaving the visitor with a feeling of unease and the impression of a place removed from time and reality.

Erice is considered the main tourist resort of the area including Trapani, the Aegadian Islands, Segesta, San Vito Lo Capo, Mothia, Marsala and Selinunte. Among the monuments of historical interest are Venus' Castle, Peopoli Castle, the Towers of the Balio, the beautiful old churces, among which the Matrice (13th), San Giuliano, San Giovanni, San Martino, Sant'Orsola or the Addolorata, where the "Mistery" groups are kept, and the Carmine Church, next to the Military Palace.

The history of Erice is lost among local folklore and superstition. The name is the one given by Eryx, the mytical hero and king of the Elimi. It is known that there were already Elymian settlements in the area in the fifth century BC. Because if its special strategic importance it was the object of recurrent conflicts from ancient times, and in particular of the wars between Greeks and Carthaginians.

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The town Erice takes a shape of a equilateral triangle and it is lovely place to spend an afternoon wandering the medieval streets, with their baroque balconies and flowering vines, and drinking in the vistas. The southwest corner of town contains the Villa Balio gardens, originally laid out in the 19th century. Beyond the gardens, a path winds along the cliff's edge up to Erice's highest point, the Castello di Venere, today little more than crumbling Norman walls surrounding the sacred site where a temple to Venus once stood