ENNA
 
 
 
From a bulging V-shaped ridge almost 1000m up, ENNA lords it over the surrounding hills of central Sicily. The approach to this doughty mountain stronghold is still as formidable as ever, the bus climbing slowly out of the valley and looping across the solid crag to the summit and the town. For obvious strategic reasons, Enna was a magnet for successive hostile armies, who in turn besieged and fortified the town, each doing their damnedest to disprove Livy's description of Enna as inexpugnabilis .

Despite the destructive attention, most of Enna's remains are medieval and in good shape, with the prize exhibit the thirteenth-century Castello di Lombardia (daily: Easter-Oct 8am-8pm; Nov-Easter 9am-1pm & 3-5pm; free), dominating the easternmost spur of town. A mighty construction with its strong walls complete, it guards the steep slopes on either side of Enna, its six surviving towers (out of an original twenty) providing lookouts. From the tallest, the Torre Pisana, the magnificent views take in Enna itself, some rugged countryside in all directions and, if you're lucky, Mount Etna.

In the centre of town virtually all the accredited sights lie stretched out along and around Via Roma , which descends from the castle. It's a narrow street, broken by small piazzas - one of which fronts the hemmed-in Duomo , dating in part from 1307. The spacious sixteenth-century interior (usually open afternoons) features huge supporting alabaster columns, the bases of which are covered with an amorphous, writhing mass of carved figures. Outside, behind the apses, the Museo Alessi (daily 8am-8pm, closes 10pm in July-Sept; L5000/¬2.58) fields a rich collection of local church art, old coins and the impressive contents of the cathedral's own treasury. There's a second museum too, equally good: the Museo Archeologico (daily 8am-7.30pm, last entry at 6.30pm; L4000/¬2.07), just over the way in Piazza Mazzini, covering Neolithic to Roman times and including a fine series of painted Greek vases.

Via Roma slopes down to the rectangular Piazza Vittorio Emanuele , focal point of the evening passeggiata. Off here, there's a long cliff-edge belvedere, while the bottom of the piazza is marked by the plain, high wall of the Chiesa di San Francesco , whose massive sixteenth-century tower previously formed part of the town's system of watchtowers. This linked the castle with the Torre di Frederico , which stands in isolation in its little park in the largely modern south of the town. An octagonal tower, 24m high, it's a survivor of the alterations to the city made by Frederick of Aragon who added a (now hidden) underground passage linking it to the castello .