Erice

Took the cable car from Trapani to Erice , a town located on  a plateau 2,463 feet above Trapai.  The town was founded by the ancient Greeks.   Great view of the surrounding area and salt fields.  Also home of one of the best pastry shops in Sicily –Maria Grammatico Pasticceria.  Maria was there and willingly agreed to poise for my camera.  She is Sicily’s most famous pastry chef.  At age 11, her father died.  Her mother, pregnant with a sixth child, sent her with her sister to the cloistered San Caro orphanage in Erice to lean the art of pastry making from the nuns.  She toiled in brutally hard conditions making pastries until she was age 22.  In order to survive, she started making sweets and pastries – and the rest is history.  Her cannoli filled with fresh ricotta is one of her signature items.