The taxi pulled into the bay outside the fabulous Art Nouveau doors of our hotel in Rome’s Via della Penna just up from Valadier’s Piazza del Popolo; we were back at Hotel Locarno.

(I have been returning to Hotel Locarno for nearly 15 years. And, when I first started coming here the gracious Daniele ran the bar and we had not yet started our search for a house in Sicily.)

When we turned off the Piano Battaglia road last Thursday evening, just a few kilometres outside of Polizzi Generosa, it was just before  7.30 pm. The near summer light was soft and the early night air in the Madonie Mountains was cool after a warm day.

My husband and I had been invited to a summer house by Polizzani friends, for a dinner of simple Sicilian food, at a long table set on a roofed terrazzo looking towards Polizzi.

I was on the second floor balcony of Palazzo Notar Nicchi, overlooking Polizzi's main street when the town's numerous confraternities, moving slowly to the mournful music of the village band, turned the corner and came into view. They were followed by the village's new communicants.

A sole drummer, caped in red, led the procession.

I am in Polizzi Generosa for a short time only, staying in the first floor apartment of The Sicilian House, The Sant’ Orsola, in Palazzo Notar Nicchi. And, I am thinking about how I came to know about Polizzi.

The late spring air is still cool at night, the days are warm and the fields and soaring mountains surrounding Polizzi are green after the winter rains.