Thw winter blues

I have bemoaned on many prior occasions the deleterious effects that relying solely on tourism has on a place. My beloved Castellammare was once a thriving fishing and agricultural town.Then came the economic miracle and the farms were subdivided into country villas and the fishing became too hard for the new generation who believed that an university degree would assure them economic success. Almost all the fishing is now done in nearby Mazara del Vallo that wisely expanded this enterprise making it the largest fishing fleet in Europe. So the town tries to live off the plethora of government employment with the so called posts and with tourism. The problem is that in the off season, the old and historical part of the town, very busy in the summer, is deserted. You see another outcome of prosperity was the development of modern elevator apartments at the outskirts where the larger part of the people live. My house is located in the old section and I actually enjoy the quiet of the winter but it gets hectic in the summer

This solitude does make for some interesting photos. These were shot this winter with the Panasonic Lumix LX-7.