Mazara del Vallo is a port city in the far west of Sicily, straddling the line between Italy and North Africa — culturally and geographically. It is home to Italy's largest fishing fleet, crewed in large part by Tunisian fishermen, and the Casbah, the old Arab quarter, is one of the most genuinely Tunisian-feeling places in Europe.
The town's star attraction is the Dancing Satyr, an ancient Greek bronze of extraordinary quality hauled up from the sea floor by a fishing trawler in 1998. It is displayed alone in a converted church and worth the trip in itself. The Cathedral of Mazara del Vallo on the Piazza della Repubblica and the perfectly proportioned Arab-Norman church of San Nicolò Regale are the other highlights of a town that repays an afternoon of wandering.
The harbour is the economic heart of the place — busy, working, and not particularly pretty, but honest. Trapani is 25km north, and Selinunte's Greek temple park is 35km east.