Erice

As soon as you get to this wonderful corner built on Mount Giuliano, 751 meters above sea level, you start to breathe the Middle Ages. It unites many Sicilian features with Norman urbanism, the Arabic organization of houses around the courtyard, and a wide range of sweets and beautiful puppets. To get there, you can go by funicular or car (if you don't mind the turns), zigzagging for about 14 kilometres and enjoying the panoramic sea views. Various roads exist in the interior of its labyrinthine streets. It's a luxury to stop to chat on the patios with the locals, although my ideal is getting lost in the streets and discovering places eroded by the passage of time.

Erice is a historic town perched on a hill 750m above Trapani. The best way to get there is to take the cable car. You will need your camera as the view of the Trapani spit, salt pans and out across the sea to the Egadi islands is spectacular. However make sure your timing is good as the kisses of Venus (clouds) can often cover the summit.

In common with many places in Sicily the site has been occupied sequentially by many diverse cultures. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans and the legacy of this is a small town with a castle, numerous towers and places of worship for 32 different saints.