Sicilian ancestry (on my mother’s side) lured us to visit the rural north-east of the island. This would be my fourth time going to see the tiny village of Irianni to see the house that Mum used to live in! We based ourselves in a small town on the north coast, not far from an excellent cafe where I got my dose of good coffee each day.

The first stop on our day trip was the nearby town Sant’Angelo di Brolo. Visited the cemetery then wandered into town to grab a coffee and a snack. My rudimentary Italian is just passable for ordering food at a cafe 😂

Driving in a car that no sane Sicilian would choose to bring here (the hire car company in Naples “upgraded” us to a large SUV… err, thanks), we headed further south along the winding roads, through valleys and around hills to Irianni. We opted to park by the main road and walk down the track, past farm houses until we reached an overgrown building that looked like it hadn’t been tended to for at least 5 years, if not 10… this was Mum’s old house! Unfortunately, it was way too overgrown to enter, or even to get close enough to peer in a window.

For lunch I had identified a pizza restaurant to visit on the drive back, conveniently located in another town nearby. All we had to do was drive to it.

[Narrator’s voice] The drive there was not as straight forward as they anticipated.

The road there was an unmarked single track kind of road. It had bushes growing into and across the road at some points. A steep decline took us into the town of Raccuja. The steepness continues throughout the town, I can only imagine how fit the warriors are that live there and walk around the town!

The road through the middle of the town probably has a 30% steepness gradient and is made of slippery cobblestones. It weaves around the houses that are built right up against the road edge, sometimes stealing precious centimetres. Other bits have stone or concrete slabs poking into the road, making for a rather treacherous descent! Thankfully the car brakes were up to the job – they may have been glowing red afterwards. The kids may have also learnt some new words to add to their vocabulary 😂

This was the scariest drive of my life!!

In the end, we survived the journey, car intact. But the pizza restaurant was closed, so it was all for nothing!

That was enough adventure driving for the day, so we escaped to some larger, flatter roads and had some sushi in Capo d’Orlando to celebrate our good fortune in getting home in one piece!