Cefalu is a medieval city on the coast and one that I'm sure would be heaving in summer. At only 50 minutes by train from Palermo, its beaches, bays and monuments make it a popular day trip from its big sister city.

On the train, our minds turned to our trip to Malta, and so we looked to book our ferry online, only to discover that for that entire week the ferries would not be running. The only week in the year, most likely, and we had picked it! Our minds then turned to plan B - plane from Catania ( Syracuse does not have its own airport). After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we worked out that we could get a 10.10pm plane arriving in Malta at 1050. We just needed to get an extra night's accommodation in Malta as this was the night before we had booked there. We also had to cancel our reservation at a hotel in Pozzallo- the ferry port- for that night. (Over the course of a few days the pieces fell into place. We booked the flight (E61 each), found out we could have the Malta apartment a day early, cancelled Pozzallo just in time to avoid cancellation fees, and found out there was a regular bus direct from Siracusa to Catania airport in 75 minutes. The 25th will be a day with a fair bit of hanging around, but had we waited for ferries to resume we would have lost valuable time with the relatives.

Back to Cefalu. When we arrived, there were a lot of people about to visit the cathedral which is the main drawcard. It can be seen high on the hill from some distance away. It is really way out of proportion to the tiny town it graces. It was built in 1131 by Roger II and is an incredible Arab, Byzantine and Norman construction. Roger is said to have erected it to give thanks for his life after he escaped a storm and landed on the city's beach. Sicily had been conquered by the Normans in 1091. The Byzantine mosaics in the ceiling are very beautiful in their simplicity. At some stage it is clear that the part of the ceiling not over the sanctuary was redecorated in Baroque style, making for an odd contrast where the two meet, with the baroque giving an air of trying too hard.The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The medieval laundry- Lavatoio Medievale- captured our attention. They can be found down on the waterfront , where one of the local streams once vented into the ocean after its run down the steep hillside. They are a mini masterpiece of efficiency, assuming their present form in the 16th century. The stream was harnessed to flow through 24 pipes - most still with their lion head spouts. These vent into a larger pool where people could fill vessels for drinking water. From this large pool the water flows into a series of smaller pools, used for rinsing, and the water went on to fill the many individual 'tubs' for washing. This, the women began downstream using the flogging stone to soap the clothes, and moved upstream to rinse. The water at the highest level was for drinking only.

The idea was brought across from Africans. There is some irony here as the Italian island of Lampedusa has been overwhelmed recently by refugees, many from Africa, and has consequently been having plumbing problems of its own.

The train back was quite quick with one stop only so we got lucky. A man at the station stood up for me- that's the third time this has happened to me here. Am I looking ancient or are people simply kind here?? M: No comment!