A Giarratana

Today we're visiting friends of the family who live in the hilltop town of Giarratana.

We leave Ispica to drive through dry-walled countryside dotted with ancient olive trees. Some of the dry stone walls have been built or restored recently; they're immaculately neat and white. This stone yellows with age so it's easy to identify the pristine new walls. The countryside is flat here, with straight roads and low vegetation. There are houses here and there; some new-looking, others old and tumbledown. Every so often we pass a very grand old house with an imposing front gate.

Soon we're at the outskirts of Modica; a stretch of modern shops and outlet stores. We stop at Bar Fucsia (meaning fuchsia, but awkwardly pronounced FOOK-sya). As well as being a bar (which, here, is closer to a coffee shop than the British concept of a bar) Fucsia is a pasticceria, selling sweets, pastries, cakes and biscuits. We intended to take some cakes or biscuits to the friends we're visiting, but when we enter we see a huge fridge of semifreddo. Literally "half cold", semifreddo is a desert layered with sponge cake and creamy and luxurious Italian "gelato" (which is so good that we do it a disservice to translate it merely as "ice cream"). The semifreddo catches our attention and we take half a block (about 800 grams - roughly a pound and three quarters - for just €7.50!)

From Modica, we head uphill. The terrain starts to undulate, roads become winding and the dry stone walls more numerous but older. The vegetation is taller here, giving the countryside a wilder, more unkempt look. But dry stone walls tame the hillsides into terraces and this area is brimming with olive trees.

The higher up the mountain we go, the more trees there are, including pine and other evergreens. This feels a world away from the arid coastal areas we've stayed in this week.

As we enter Giarratana, we are greeted by the Chiesa Madre (Church of The Mother) rising above the houses. The streets feel narrow because they're lined with houses, but there's plenty of life here, despite the chill in the air. It was quite warm and very humid down by the coast, even though it's October, but Giarratana is about 500m (1,700 feet) above sea level and it's at least 10℃ cooler at the moment.

Giarratana is a small town; just around 3,000 inhabitants, but at least twice a year the town swells as the whole province comes to partake in one of the regular events here, both the major events being in August.

First is the Sagra della Cipolla (festival of onions). Giarratana is famous for giant, flat, sweet onions. They can easily reach 30cm or 40cm (12 to 16 inches) in diameter.

Then, on 24th August is the festival of the patron saint of the town - San Bartolo (Saint Bartholomew) - when a huge charity auction is held in the town square. It happens that 24th August is my birthday. People here are often named after the saint on whose festival day they are born, so Simona sometimes jokes that I would be Bartolina had I been born in Sicily. I haven't been here on my birthday, yet, but one year I hope to come to the Festa di San Bartolo.