Tuesday 8th September 2026

Alarm at 0730. Hauled ourselves out of bed and made tea. Packed and abluted. Met Kim and Shelly downstairs struggling with the key box. Horatio had turned up on time with his taxi. We stopped briefly around the corner so Aki could pick up some car sickness tablets. Horatio dropped us at the airport and we found the car hire place…Shelly and I signed up as drivers. Picked up our car…a Skoda Kamiq masquerading as a small coupe but with just enough luggage space in the boot. Shelly drove us to our first pit stop…we found the local cafe in a small, nondescript village off the road to Agrigento. Enjoyed coffee and croissants, then headed for Cammarata. 

Shelly loves driving off piste…so we took the long way round, via rocky single track byways across the top of a mountain…she had put a trattoria into the satnav…unbelievably, there it suddenly was…Felici’s. And very popular it was too…there must have been 200 odd diners in there, all having driven up from the opposite direction on the narrow tarmacadamed road from the town. 

We were ushered to a table and presented with a prix fixe menu at €30 a head. I’ve never seen so much food! Prosciutto, ham, sausage, ricotta, tripe, black beans…and that was just the first course! Then came cannelloni, risotto, pasta shapes in tomato sauce, followed by grilled meats, and finally a large bowl of sundry fruits!!! We got nowhere near finishing each course…and when we enquired where the waste went, were told by our jolly hostess that it went to feed the pigs!!! 

We somehow managed to waddle to the car, and set off for Enna via the Agrigento road. We swapped drivers in a lay-by north of Agrigento, and I drove us the rest of the way into Enna. I stuck to the speed limits…which meant I was consistently overtaken by cars, vans, lorries and motorbikes! No one seems to take any notice of road signage in this country! 

Satnav guided me through town, a hilltop conurbation...and we managed to get parked outside the Hotel Sicilia to the east of the town centre. None of us were remotely hungry after over overwhelming lunch...we took a walk to the castle on the eastern flank of the town. The views across the countryside to north, east, and south, were breathtaking. We watched the sun set over the buildings to the west, then wandered down to one of the piazzas for a drink before retiring for the night...