• Italy Guide

  • Introduction to Italy
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore Italy

  • Piemonte and Valle d'Aosta
  • Liguria
  • Lombardy and the lakes
  • Trentino-Alto Adige
  • The Veneto
  • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
  • Emilia-Romagna
  • Tuscany
  • Umbria
  • Marche
  • Lazio
  • Abruzzo and Molise
  • Campania
  • Puglia
  • Basilicata and Calabria
  • Sicily
  • Sardinia

• Cities

  • Bari
    
  • Bologna
    
  • Bolzano (Bozen)
    
  • Florence & the best of Tuscany
    
  • Genoa
    
  • Lecce
    
  • Milan
    
  • Naples
    
  • Pésaro
    
  • Palermo
    
  • Pisa
    
  • Pompeii
    
  • Reggio Calabria
    
  • Rome
    
  • Siena
    
  • Sulmona
    
  • Trieste
    
  • Turin (Torino)
    
  • Udine
    
  • Verona
    
  • Vicenza
    

Italy Guide

Sicily

Érice

• Accommodation
• Eating

ÉRICE is a mountain town with creeping hillside alleys, stone buildings, silent charm and powerful associations. Founded by Elymnians, who claimed descent from the Trojans, the original city was known to the ancient world as Eryx, and a magnificent temple, dedicated to Venus Erycina, Mediterranean goddess of fertility, once topped the mountain. Though the city was considered impregnable, Carthaginian, Roman, Arab and Norman invaders all forced entry over the centuries. But all respected the sanctity of Érice: the Romans rebuilt the temple and set two hundred soldiers to serve as guardians of the shrine, while the Arabs renamed the town Gebel-Hamed, or Mohammed's mountain.