erice and segesta
 
The nearest and most exhilarating ride from Trápani is to ÉRICE , forty minutes away by bus. It's a mountain town with powerful associations: creeping hillside alleys, stone buildings and silent charm. Founded by Elymnians, who claimed descent from the Trojans, the original city was known to the ancient world as Eryx, and a magnificent temple, dedicated to Venus Erycina, Mediterranean goddess of fertility, once topped the mountain. Though the city was considered impregnable, Carthaginian, Roman, Arab and Norman forces all forced entry over the centuries. But all respected the sanctity of Érice: the Romans rebuilt the temple and set 200 soldiers to serve as guardians of the shrine; while the Arabs renamed the town Gebel-Hamed, or Mohammed's mountain.

If it's fine, the views from the terraces of Érice are stupendous - over Trápani, the slumbering whales of the Égadi Islands and on very clear days as far as Cape Bon in Tunisia. Scout around the town at random: the most convoluted of routes is only going to take you a couple of hours and every street and piazza is a delight. You enter through the Norman Porta Trápani , just inside which the battlemented fourteenth-century campanile of the Duomo did service as a lookout tower for Frederick III of Aragon. From here there's no set route, though passing through pretty Piazza Umberto with its couple of outdoor bars is a good idea; and a natural start or finish could be made at the ivy-clad Norman Castello at the far end of town. This was built on the site of the famed ancient temple, chunks of which are incorporated in the walls.

Hardly surprisingly, staying in Érice means paying through the nose and booking in advance. The only relatively cheap choices are the smart Edelweiss , in Cortile Padre Vincenzo, a cobbled alley off Piazzetta San Domenico (tel 0923.869.420; L120,000-150,000/¬61.98-77.47), and, just outside town, the Ermione , Via Pineta Comunale 43 (tel 0923.869.138, fax 0923.869.587; L150,000-200,000/¬77.47-103.29), 1950s-style and with seaward views. More economical is the youth hostel (tel 0923.869.144; L30,000/¬15.60), outside the town walls on Viale delle Pinete, but it's usually open June-September only, and even then is often fully booked - check with the helpful tourist office (Mon-Sat: 8am-2pm; tel 0923.869.388) on Viale Conte Pepoli, which also dishes out maps. If you're coming for the day you may want to bring a picnic since restaurant prices in Érice are vastly inflated. However, many places offer a tourist menu, such as the Re Aceste , Viale Conte Pepoli 45 (closed Wed & Nov), whose terrace overlooks the plain below town. There's higher-quality fare at La Pentolaccia , Via Guarnotti 17, housed in an old monastery and moderately priced (closed Fri), and at the more formal and correspondingly pricier Monte San Giuliano , entered through a medieval gateway at Vicolo San Rocco 7 (tel 0923.869.595; closed Mon and 2 weeks in Nov & Jan).