This is an area to be explored slowly from the lane which curves up the hillside, covered in parts by buildings with little stone-stepped alleys climbing into further shadows. Narrow entrances lead down darkened tunnels and up more steps to little shops, trattorias and strange blind alleys. This warren sprawls up the hillside to where vertiginous cliffs tower directly over everything and induce that uneasy feeling about falling rocks.

Find the old paper mill beside the underground river which can be continually heard underfoot. Inside what looks like a derelict mill, an aged person sits eating his midday meal, but is welcoming with a “Prego, prego!” as he gestures for intruders to look around. Hand made paper is made in this damp smelling hovel, but no finished products are on view. Leave the aged one to his lunch and return to the square.

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This is a time to sit, have tea and devise a plan of attack. As there doesn’t appear to be one, the usual default system comes into play. Just wander about. Suddenly a vista of a square opens out through an alleyway. The Piazza Flavio surrounded by a jumble of shops and apartments slants upwards into the narrow Via Genato. But breathtakingly on the right at the top of fifty six huge steps sits the Cathedral of Santa Monica with its beautiful Renaissance facade.

And if there is a wedding in the cathedral and an usher brings you in to sit at the back while the Mass is being celebrated, and all the other onlookers are being kept out, don’t question it. Take a photo of the little Italian bride gazing adoringly at her spouse and wish them luck. Avoid being near them on the steps outside where they are showered with sugared almonds. The bride may now spend the next ten minutes emptying her bodice of these missiles which end up being crushed underfoot providing the local pigeons with mega calories.

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