Marsala on the west coast of Sicily is one of those Italian cities where strolling round the place is an attraction in itself. Like the capital Palermo, Marsala has an old city heart, and is then surrounded by a "belle époque" era more modern part (perhaps dating largely from the late 1800’s).
As we were visiting in December and had no intention of driving in Italy, we stuck pretty much to the town itself. There is however some great day trips from Marsala in summer, including the Greek and Roman remains at Syracuse and to take a boat trip to visit one of the islands off-shore.
For me the most interesting life is always in the old city, although in Marsala there is plenty of good shopping to be had in the more modern part of town. Prices tend to be a little cheaper in Marsala, although there is also less choice or really high fashion. That said, there are often few bargains to be had in Italy – I always think of the country as an expensive one (and with prices generally higher than the UK).
The best part of the Marsala shopping experience comes with shoes and clothes, although strangely the prices of clothes seems quite random – there are shops selling nice things at fairly modest prices, whereas similar looking items in other shops are perhaps double or treble. These places seem to be laughing in the face of recession!
We struggled to find many independent artisan shops in the town; perhaps because it isn't particularly touristy. One of the main draws for shopping is to grab a bottle of the famous Marsala wine, and there are a couple of wine shops dotted about.
The city itself has lots of nice fin de siècle pastel coloured buildings, doorways and archways. While there isn't anything wildly of note about Marsala, it is a pleasant place to wander round and snap photos. The two ancient (but reconstructed) gateways into the city are also worth lingering over.
Unusually for Italy, there aren't a huge number of restaurants around in Marsala, and squares where you might expect a number of different coloured regiments of tables and chairs from competing establishments are simply left to the pigeons.
A large area of the city is left protected as an archaeological site; unfortunately it seems to me that more could be made of the site, as I understand pre booked escorted tours are the only way to gain access to it. Rather than have a proper route through with display boards, instead it sits likes an abandoned building site cutting off the town from the sea. As a result, the views of the sea appear to be underutilized; an impression reinforced as the busy main road cuts off the town from the coast. The few houses I spotted near the coast seem to have their back to it facing in towards the town.
Likewise, the most obvious place for a little nature reserve and walk, a short spit reaching out to good views of the islands off the coast away from the archaeology museum appears to be used as an unofficial rubbish tip.
While Marsala is still well worth a visit, it seems it could make far more of its charms.
I won’t describe Marsala as a great hidden tourist destination, but it offers a good contrast to Palmero as it is certainly quieter, prettier and more upmarket to its capital city. The trip to Marsala from Palermo takes about 2 and a half easy hours on the bus (just catch it from the main bus station next to the railway station in Palermo) and costs 8.40 Euro each way.