I have always enjoyed looking at maps, and failing to find what we want, probably because being a mean bugger the maps are always out of date. For this holiday we decided to embrace the new fangled technology of a sat nav. Its first outing, getting from the airport to the hotel was a great success, the area around our hotel is a warren of narrow one way streets and pedestrian areas yet it got us there down some very tight turns without difficulty.
Leaving the hotel is a different matter, the person who programmed it is clearly a fan of the Italian Job as it tries to make us climb a flight of steps but no matter we still had some faith in it.
Today we decided to visit Erice, a medieval town on top of a hill, the map in the guide book clearly showed its position so we asked the sat nav to take us to Erice which it did however when "you have arrived at your destination" was announced we were in a horrid suburb of a city.
After many technical navigational terms were shouted at the stupid machine we discovered that it has two towns marked Erice although the one we wanted had a preface of "Ancient". The modern one does not appear on our paper map as it is a fairly insignificant area about 10 miles from it's ancient namesake.
Ancient Erice is a small town about 2000ft up on top of a hill with very steep sides all around. The views were spectacular on the occasions the mist cleared.
It has 18 churches / religious establishments yet is about the size of Bishop's Castle. The main street was very touristy but the coach parties, as always, just raced to the key sites and if you moved down any side street it was lovely and quiet.
Back at our hotel in time for a beer before dinner (in the rain), it's location is great, the breakfasts good and our room whilst small has everything we need (including a bath) and it is nice and quiet. The posh rooms with the harbour view get the sounds of 18 year olds racing their scooters up and down the road outside.
The parking outside is limited to 60 minutes during the day, you put a note in the windscreen stating your arrival time and so long as it was less than an hour ago you are ok. To overcome this limitation you leave your car keys with reception and every hour they put a new time in your windscreen and you can stay all day!