Sicily

Just off the toe of Italy’s boot, this wild and woolly island is loved for its Greek Temples, coastal towns and a famous volcano. The island is best experienced (in our humble opinion) on an east to west road trip, Palermo to Taormina via Syracuse. Dotted around the island lie the Aeolian Islands – only accessible by ferry but a means to access off-grid Italy and truly switch off.

Sicily’s long history has seen it at the heart of great civilizations and often under foreign rule. Of the ancients, the Greeks loved Sicily most and left a monumental mark on the island, almost as great as the island itself made on classical culture. The great cities of Syracuse, home to Archimedes, Selinunte and Agrigento are still strewn with vast ruins and towering doric temples. The iconic amphitheatre at Taormina overlooks sea and smoking Mount Etna, as impressive a view now as it was two millennia ago.

When Goethe wrote ‘to have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything’, he was not far off the mark.