Much of Sicily's landscape is mountainous and many towns are perched on top of them, as you travel around the island you get familiar with the undulating landscape and the towns that spiral down from the mountain tops.  What makes Erice so striking is it seems to stand alone.  After a couple of days around the flats of Marsala the sight of this town perched high in the sky takes your breath away.  

We were trusting google maps to guide us and as we approached the bottom of the mountain it seemed to indicate that there were two routes up - one that we could see, and one that required us to go round to the other side of the mountain but would take a little longer.  

In the back of my head I had a little red flag waving at me - trying to remind me that I had read there were two roads to the top and that one was more perilous than the other - but it just wasn't big and bright enough to slow us down and Simon had begun the climb before we could consider if it was the right way. 

Maybe the barrier at the start of the road should have stopped us but Simon was convinced it was just covering a pot hole, or maybe the lack of road markings and safety barriers should have made us turn round (but where on these narrow switchback roads), or just the sheer lack of traffic travelling on the road to what we knew to be a popular tourist attraction should have screamed - this is not the main road!  But no not of that deterred us and on we climbed.  

The following journey, which lasted roughly 15 minutes, was one of the most terrifying car journeys that I can ever recall as we wound our way up the exposed dirt track to the top of the mountain - during the whole time we passed only one car and they looked equally as terrified going down.  My palms were sweating, my heart thumping as we crawled up in 1st and 2nd gear - I couldn't even look at the vast sprawling landscape as it disappeared from beneath our feet.  Never have I felt so relieved to reach the end of road.  Surprisingly (or not) when we discussed the road with our hosts they looked shocked we had come up that way and said - thats not a safe road - no kidding!!! 

Needless to say when we left they pointed in the direction of the main road - which after the donkey track of the day before was a breeze!