WALKING IN SICILY'S MOUNTAINS

Traversing the peaks and towns of the Madonie on the picturesque Italian island mountains

- Anna Walker

In the back of the jeep driving us to the village of Gangi, I have a problem. A typical British tourist, I’d thought I’d be able to get by on our walking tour of Sicily with just slithers of Italian: grazie, per favore, più vino.

Failing that, I think, yawning and stretching flight-tired limbs, my partner—fluent in Italian—can make up for my shortcomings. But as he attempts to launch into easy banter with our driver, it’s clear the Sicilian language is a beast all its own.

“Is the dialect in Gangi closer to Spanish than Italian?” We’re met with a wry chuckle.

“More like Arabic”.

As it turns out, my thin grasp of the language won’t matter. Sicilian warmth is unimpeded by a lack of common tongue—the hospitality on this trip is some of the sincerest I’ve ever encountered.

As we drive through fields of flushed orange groves and squat olive trees, towns begin to emerge on the mountainside. A distant summit looms into view and our driver nods reverently. “There is the king of Sicily.” We won’t see Etna again until the final stop in our trip, which will take in the hilltop medieval towns and leafy forestry of the Madonie Natural Park, in the northern half of the island.

We’re visiting through slow travel tour operator Inntravel, who have provided a dossier of maps and advice to guide us. In the age of Google Maps, there’s something refreshing— and a little terrifying—about hitting the road analogue style.