Erice — the medieval lanes and the Castello di Venere

Erice sits on the flat top of Monte San Giuliano, inside its walls, and the first thing a photographer notices is the ground: the lanes are paved in pale stone laid in geometric patterns, scrubbed smooth by centuries, and they light up whenever the sun reaches them. The town is a triangle of courtyards, arches and closed façades, with almost no modern building inside the gates.

The Castello di Venere stands at the far eastern point on a rock that drops away on three sides. It was raised by the Normans over the sanctuary of Venus Erycina, a temple famous across the ancient Mediterranean, and the terrace beside it looks down over Trapani, the salt pans and the Egadi islands — on a clear morning you can see the Tunisian horizon.

Mornings are the safe bet. Erice is high enough to make its own weather, and cloud regularly climbs the mountain in the afternoon and swallows the town for hours; that fog is either the end of the session or the best light you will ever get in a lane, depending on how you use it.

The cable car from Trapani takes about ten minutes and is the easy way up, but it stops for maintenance and in strong wind. Bring a layer: it can be ten degrees cooler here than on the coast below, and the wind is constant.