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The mountains of the interior flatten as they near the sea toward Mazara, Marsala and up to Trapani on the northwest coast. The flat, sunbaked ground is fertile territory for grapes, olives and the salt pans.

At his estate near Sambuca di Sicilia, Diego Planeta and family plant both indigenous and international grapes – taste La Segreta Rosso (Nero d’Avola with Merlot and Syrah).

Nice small pensione with nine clean, modern rooms, wooden furniture and amazing views of Monte Cofano and the gulf. They offer a cooking course, arrange airport transfers, horseback riding, tour guides, and boat and diving excursions. The restaurant is famous for its cous cous (see Pocho, San Vito lo Capo).

You can’t do better for a view than the terrace at Pocho, with Monte Cofano and the bay splayed out before you. Owner Marilù Terrasi is well-known for her cous cous and the wine list is made up of selected Sicilian labels (see Pocho, San Vito lo Capo).

Excellent cous cous served in an eclectic dining room with puppets hanging in the corners or on the breezy terrace looking down at Monte Cofano and the bay (see Pocho, San Vito lo Capo).

On the road from old to new Poggioreale, a single wheat-covered hill rises up, topped with a lone wild pear tree.

In the heart of the Belice Valley, Poggioreale Vecchio (the old town) was founded in 1642 and managed to survive as a self-sufficient village until the earthquake of 1968 left it nothing more than a ghost town. Modern progress arrives slowly in the remote interior, and Poggioreale Vecchio looks much as it did in the 1800s. The people of old Poggioreale who were left homeless after the earthquake moved into a new government-sponsored town 15 years after the event. The new Poggioreale, a 1980s design by Paolo Portoghese, is full of flamboyant architecture, yet sadly filled with rather uninviting public spaces.

The black beach here is a luxurious stretch of open, isolated, sparkling sands with a dramatic lava cliff backdrop. The view out to the sea is just as dramatic, with a craggy faraglione (rock tower) poking up out of the dark sea. As there is little development here, bring food and drink from town or get supplies from the vendor and his friends at the booth set up in the church piazza (see Pollara Beach, Salina).

The giant one-eyed Cyclops shepherd and cannibal held Odysseus hostage in his Mount Etna cave.

This gateway to the city was erected in 1535 as a triumphal arch to commemorate Charles V’s victory in Tunis.