Locations: Erice | Cefalu | Taormina | Aeolian Islands | Siracusa | Agrigento | Acitrezza..Acicastello..Acireale..
Erice
It was that of Astarte for the Carthaginians, Aphrodite for the Greeks, Venus Erycina for the Romans: a beacon in the whole Mediterranean, the temple of the goddess was perhaps founded by Aineas, or perhaps by Dedalus, or perhaps even by the local king Eryx, the son of Aphrodite, who challenged Heracles, who happened to be passing through there, and was killed by him (and hence the town remained sacred to Heracles).
The Temple of the Goddess of Love....
.. And it was precisely the cult of fertility and love that marked Erice, famous in antiquity for its shrine atop the mountain, to which sailors turned.
There is no trace now of this temple; according to Diodorus, it stood on the ancient acropolis where in the 13th century the Norman castle was built. You get to it through the Balio gardens, an amazing scenic road high over the sea, whence one gives oneself up to a horizon that takes in the Aegadean Islands and the Monte Cofano. You walk on the flat area around the magnificent fortress, often beaten by misty waves that thicken and thin as softly as suddenly. One seeks something that can suggest an outdoor altar, like a "false Aphrodite's well". And instead one is dazed by a place that myth, vestige and nature render restless and mysterious…