Enna

At an altitude of almost 1,000 metres - the highest provincial capital in Italy - Enna has always been an 'urbs inexpugnabilis', and is still a great little town that the Italian Touring Club has described as a 'ring of wonder', an 'up-and-down town', a 'summit suspended over the land', a 'balcony of incredible views'. The austere and enormous fortified system of the castle of Lombardy, created during the Swabian domination, offers a panorama that dominates both the city itself and the other urban pyramid of Calascibetta, perched opposite.

A classic journey through the Erei and Iblei mountains from here to the tip of Cape Passero would hardly begin from Enna: it is logistically too far inland for people arriving from the mainland or landing at Catania airport. However, it is worth driving half an hour from Piazza Armerina to convince yourself that Enna has preserved its character as a historical city with a sober medieval tone, together with some marginal Baroque and 18th-century contaminations.

Archaeological finds have confirmed the age-old origins of the city, which tradition says was the ancient centre first of the Sicans and then of the Siculians. Today's gastronomic discoveries include maccaruna with meat sauce, lamb or mutton chops, omelettes with vegetables, focaccias stuffed with bacon and tomato, and piacintinu pecorino cheese flavoured with saffron and black peppercorns, and much more.