The strong voices of the fish market traders echo in Piazza Alonzo Di Benedetto which is tucked in behind Catania’s elegant Piazza Del Duomo. It is a Thursday morning and down a few steps from the classic marble fountain Amenano, which borders Piazza Del Duomo, the pulsating market, “La Pescheria” is in full swing.

The afternoon sun was low that Monday when a little blue Fiat 500L came into view as we turned onto the Calcarelli road to Polizzi. The shape of an older woman could be made out through the small rear window of the 500L as she gently swerved to miss the potholes. The Fiat moved slowly. There was no stopping at the stop signs, just a slowing and a drop in gear, our speedometer was reading 20km per hour when we decided to follow the little car back to Polizzi.

As I made my way into the old centre of Palermo, just before midnight, on May the third, the road from the airport was quiet. At Capaci, we passed the tall memorial to the fearless Sicilian anti- mafia Judge, Giovanni Falcone, his colleague and wife Francesca  Morvillo and their three bodyguards-  murdered  by the  Mafia on May 23rd 1992.

To head to Porticello, a small fishing village on the Tyrrhenian Sea about 45 minutes from Polizzi for a long seafood lunch at ll Faro Verde, a restaurant by the village’s port, is a nice way to spend a few hours on a warm spring afternoon.

The SS120, a couple of kilometres out of Polizzi, meanders down the mountains past old baronial farming estates and green fields until it joins the fast arterial, the A19. The A19 snakes the valley floor and once it hits the coast the exit for Porticello is not far.