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Directly across the road, squeezed between an antique shop and a gelateria, is the narrow arched alleyway Vicolo Stretto, all of 60cm wide. It emerges at a lane in the residential area, where you go right for a brief stretch, then take the next flight of steps uphill. Busy Via Circonvallazione is crossed, and close by (left) is the start of the old mule track for the Castello Saraceno and Via Crucis.

Climbing gradually above town, a series of steps and ramps passes through a lovely profusion of wild flowers, majestic agave spikes and wild fennel, not to mention the prickly pear outlined on the rocky mountainside. Needless to say there are good views down onto the town’s famous Greek theatre.

Twenty minutes from the square will see you at the well-placed scenic sanctuary of Madonna della Rocca, a 16th-century church partially built into the limestone bastion, as its curious uneven rocky ceiling reveals. Outside, a vast expanse of the Ionian coast stretches into the distance, with a curve of Calabria on mainland Italy to the northeast. Below, set in the gentle sweep of the bay at modern day Capo Schisò, are the scanty remains of the first Greek colony in Sicily, namely Naxos.