Sicily

Alight from the train or bus station into Syracuse's sterile modern centre, and you just might wonder what the fuss is all about. But enter the labyrinthine alleyways of the ancient island of Ortygia, or the vast archaeological park north of town, and layers of history will soon have you swooning. Suddenly you're standing in a vast field of Greek ruins, gazing down over delicate papyrus plants in an ancient pool or wandering through a glimmering marble-paved square where ancient temple columns peek out from under a cathedral's baroque facade.

The magnificent temples of Agrigento's Valley of the Temples make an impression like no other ruins in Sicily. Strung out along the long rocky promontory where the ancient Greeks erected them 2500 years ago, their magical aura is enhanced at night, when they're brilliantly floodlit. On summer evenings, don't miss the chance to walk among the temples of the Eastern Zone after dark, an experience unparalleled at any other Sicilian ancient site. A short way up the hill, Agrigento's Museo Archeologico is one of the island's finest museums.

With its long sandy beach hugging the sparkling Tyrrhenian, and its twin cathedral towers juxtaposed against La Rocca's rugged heights, Cefalù provokes many a 'love at first sight' reaction. The dazzling Byzantine mosaics of the cathedral's apse, the golden-hued towers (newly opened to the public in 2019) and the carved columns of its cloister will keep you busy on a rainy day, but once summer rolls around it's hard to resist the waterfront's allure. You won't find a better blend of beach resort and medieval town centre anywhere in Italy.

Extraordinarily beautiful and surprisingly diverse, the seven volcanic islands of the Aeolian archipelago are packed with standout attractions – Vulcano's smoking crater, Salina's verdant vineyards, Panarea's whitewashed luxury hotels – yet their greatest appeal may lie in their markedly slower rhythm. With very few cars and zero stress, this place feels a world apart from the Sicilian 'mainland'; indeed, when leaving the islands, locals speak of 'going to Sicily'. You might just want to adopt the same mindset, lingering here your whole vacation and saving 'Sicily' for later.

Sicily's endlessly fascinating capital is a full-on urban adventure. Recent initiatives including street art projects, expanded pedestrian zones and revamped cultural venues have brought new vibrancy to this ancient city. Meanwhile, the age-old attractions endure: contemplating the exquisite carved ceilings and mosaic-covered arches of the Cappella Palatina, listening to the cacophonous singing of vendors at Mercato di Ballarò or the harmonic perfection of an opera performance at Teatro Massimo, poring through millennia of well-catalogued treasures at the Museo Archeologico Regionale or stumbling across forgotten baroque facades on a workaday backstreet.

Aeschylus himself would doubtless be pleased to see Greek drama still flourishing in Syracuse's great amphitheatre, two-and-a-half millennia later. Every spring, the Cycle of Classical Plays brings a solid month's worth of live performances to the very venue where the venerable playwright once sat. Come summer, the action moves up the coast to Taormina's Teatro Greco, where you can watch everything from international film premieres to famous rockers, dancers and divas performing under balmy evening skies, all with Mt Etna as the scenic backdrop.

A feast for the senses, Palermo's Mercato di Ballarò is as much akin to a North African bazaar as to a mainland Italian market: fruit vendors raucously hawking their wares in Sicilian dialect, the irresistible perfume of lemons and oranges, and the crackle of chickpea fritters emerging from the deep-fryer. Across the island, Catania's La Pescheria offers an equally evocative slice of Sicilian life, with gesticulating fish vendors presiding over a chaotic crush of market stalls where severed swordfish heads cast sidelong glances across heaps of silvery sardines on ice.

Never content to sit still, Sicily's great volcanoes keep belching sulphurous steam and sending fireworks into the night sky. Three-and-a-half centuries after burying Catania in volcanic ash, Mt Etna still broods over the city, keeping locals on their toes, while Stromboli continues lighting the way for passing ships as it did in ancient times. Climbing either or both of these fiery beauties is easily done in a day, or you can just admire them from afar. Either way, they're an unforgettable part of the Sicilian experience.

With every hairpin curve on the long climb to Erice, it seems that the views can't possibly get any better. But they do. Save your camera battery for the top of the hill, where the Norman Castello di Venere affords 360-degree perspectives clear out to San Vito Lo Capo, the Egadi Islands and the salt pools and windmills of the Saline di Trapani. It's small wonder that earlier cultures considered this a sacred site, building a temple to Venus that even earned a mention in Virgil's Aeneid.

Located in a forested valley near Piazza Armerina, this Unesco-listed site – originally a lavish 4th-century villa – showcases the world's finest examples of ancient Roman floor mosaics. Lost to history for 700 years following a 12th century landslide, the superbly preserved collection now offers a thrilling portal to ancient history. Highlights include the Ambulacro della Grande Caccia, an astonishing 64m-long corridor studded with mosaics featuring exotic animals including tigers, leopards and elephants, while the Sala delle Dieci Ragazze (Room of the Ten Girls) presents striking female athletes in surprisingly contemporary style.

Southeastern Sicily's baroque towns, from Noto to Modica to Ragusa, form one of the island's most captivating itineraries.The most authentic of the lot, Scicli has long been something of a sleeper, but these days it's attracting VIP residents, including world-famous photographers, designers and entrepreneurs. The baroque architecture is breathtaking, numerous of its aristocratic palaces have been recently restored, and it is famous for being one of the main shooting locations for the TV series Inspector Montalbano (you can visit two of the sets inside Palazzo Municipio).

Sicilian cuisine will radically alter your concept of Italian food. Ingredients that repeatedly appear in Sicily's distinctive dishes include citrus, wild fennel and mint, pistachios and almonds, cherry tomatoes, capers and olives, tuna and sardines, swordfish and shrimp. In Catania, you’ll encounter uniquely Sicilian treats such as pasta alla Norma, made with local eggplants and ricotta. In Trapani, tuck into saffron-scented couscous. In Palermo, try pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines, pine nuts, raisins, fennel and breadcrumbs). Wherever you go, save room for legendary desserts like cannoli and cassata.

Sicily's interior is a rugged place, full of rocky outcrops, precipitous hillsides and fields parched by the summer sun. It can sometimes look downright uninhabitable, but scan the horizon and you'll quickly find evidence of the island's long centuries of human settlement. Picturesquely perched hill towns such as Enna, Caltabellotta, Caccamo, Gangi, Noto and San Marco d'Alunzio are sprinkled throughout the island, most of them clinging to vertigo-inducing heights and crowned by crumbling Norman castles or traces of other long-past civilisations.

Straddling the grand sweep of the Golfo di Castellammare, Sicily's oldest nature reserve is a thing of beauty. Back in the 1980s, highway engineers were poised to build a highway through this rugged stretch of coastline, but conservationists prevailed. The result is one of Sicily's unique gems, a traffic-free coastal park scalloped with pristine coves, threaded with hiking trails, and dotted with museums that celebrate local flora, fauna, tuna fishing and agricultural traditions. At the park's southern edge, the charming village of Scopello makes a perfect gateway.