Trapani

Grillo turned out to be a good choice because it's vigorous and could handle Sicily's hot, dry conditions.

And so by 1930, it reportedly accounted for about 65% of the vineyards in the province of Trapani.

It really took off then.

It really took off.

Okay.

Now, because Grillo produces lower yields compared to Caterato and other varieties in Marsala, growers actually started uprooting it and planting shrank drastically.

And by around 2000, Grillo accounted for just 3% of the vineyards in Trapani.

From 65% to 3%.

And so you have fighting going on around different areas, strategic interests and control over wealth and prosperity, resources, all of these things we're familiar with.

And so in the late fourth century, after really quite a long period of war on Sicily between basically the leaders from and in and around the city of Syracuse, which is the most powerful Greek speaking city on Sicily, and The allies of the Carthaginians, who are places like Palermo or Trapani or Marsella are the modern cities.

You have those cities in the West calling Carthagin to protect them against Greek aggression and the Syracusans.

And you have a series of battles taking place.

And getting there is highly efficient.

You fly into Trapani in Sicily.

Brighton Air frequently advertises flights into Trapani for as low as £14.99 from the UK.

From the port, a high-speed hydrofoil glides you across in just 30 minutes.

And the ticket is 11.83 euros.

We'll talk about his induction, what he was up to.

But I want to talk about kind of the lineage of the Guzzo group, who, as far as I know, is from this area of Sicily, a city called Partana, which is in Trapani, Italy.

Now, again, that has all to do with what I found in census records.

When we look at Vito Guzzo, his father, Vito Guzzo Sr., was born in 1934.

They would settle in kind of the Bushwick area of Brooklyn, which, you know, if you know anything about Bushwick.

From the mid-20th century until essentially the 1980s, Bushwick was actually one of the biggest Sicilian enclaves in New York City.

Now, today it's more Spanish, and it's always been Spanish, but back then there was a large confluence of Sicilians from Trapani, Palermo, and other areas of Sicily.

Now, from what I found about Vito Guzzo's father, At the age of 17, so essentially in 1950, and look, I would show a photo of Vito Guzzo Sr. in his later age.

Um, but it was too late cause I had already flown combat operations, but, uh, we were staying in, in, in Italy.

Um, in Trapani and it was beautiful sunshine, Sicily.

So, you know, before flying, I would fly often at nights, but throughout the day I would go suntan, uh, out, uh, like on our, in our hotel compound there.

And I would suntan, uh, underneath our commanding officer's window.

Hmm

... between food, wine, history, panorama, and we do this all around Sicily, whether it's going f- to Palermo over to Trapani, to Agrigento, to the Villa Romana del Casale, which has the most amazing Roman mosaics.

Mm-hmm.

Some of the best in the world are right there.

Um- Wow ... now, this particular individual is reportedly, was reportedly buried in what was known as Atrabach.

Today it's known as Trapani in Sicily.

Okay? Mm-hmm.

There are other names as well, but the reason I'm making the...

There's always competition in Sicily.

Like they do up in Trapani, they just break off coral, but they only take it off the seafloor.

And if you find a piece with bits of black in it, that's the prized stuff, because that means it's from the volcano a couple hundred years ago.

And so then I saw the process of turning this, and gave it a go actually, turning this coral into all sorts of... jewelry so yeah so it's always there's always something new to discover or we're going back to shikha i think in a few years to do we're thinking i'm thinking of creating sicily 2.0 because there's for people who have come with me before or people have been to sicily and we want to go a bit deeper dive maybe to some islands maybe spend some more time in the smaller towns where you really get to know the stories and you aren't it's getting busy sicily it's getting busy Some of the places, like we were at the end of the season and some of the places we used to go to, we were the only people there.

So there's always an alternative.

But I think that the point is being open to possibly trying it, you know, depending on whether it's an allergy or just a dislike.

And just because you're not actually eating it doesn't mean you don't get to experience you don't get to see it you don't you know because it's all you don't get to hear the story so we go to a very it's the best place in Trapani to get the traditional couscous which is a seafood driven it's a Sicilian international dish particularly around Trapani Masala area but it's it's not couscous like we think of it it's it's a fish-based couscous which they hand roll she hand rolls it to make that couscous so it takes about 24 to 48 hours to make it it's got a very rich rich fish stock that it's cooked in steamed in and then poured over and then it has fish on top so this restaurant is very well known for seafood it's on it's in a port city it's where they love their seafood She was actually featured on Stanley Tucci's last edition in Sicily, which changed the restaurant a little.

Usually we're the only palangi sitting in this restaurant.