The small but perfectly formed town of San Marco d’Alunzio perches precariously on a high hill above the north coast of Sicily; at its peak is a remnant wall of the old Norman castle; below is a maze of medieval streets and steep alleyways that create a confusing lattice of routes up and down and round the town. Everywhere you look you find a church, which is unsurprising as San Marco holds nearly two dozen of them; these have been built and rebuilt here through the ages. Most of the many terraced houses are adorned with pots of perfectly tended flowers, herbs and miniature orange trees. During a Saturday wedding, the most beautiful singing from the choir spills from the large Mother Church. The place is straordinaria e magica.

San Marco looks out over its renowned, red marble quarries, much of which is used to pave the streets and decorate the churches and beyond them, the coastal strip is full of busy towns and on the long corniches, rows of holiday apartments and a good number of seafood restaurants. The view across the Tyrrhenian Sea is of a line of sleeping volcanoes that comprise the Aeolian islands; in the far distance beyond Lipari is Stromboli, famous for its constant eruption. Behind the village, the hills rise into the wilderness of the Nebrodi National Park. There are Griffon vultures nesting on the distant cliffs across the valley; they float over the town from time to time, adding further to the spectacle.