traveldk.com

A perfect little trattoria . Try the spicy aubergine (eggplant) pasta.

The menu offers Sicilian dishes eaten in a garden of orange trees or in the quaint arched dining room.

This terraced pizzeria has wonderful views.

Here you’ll find the top names in classic Italian high fashion, including Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferre and Armani.

This district is famed for big-name Italian stores such as Max Mara, Benetton, Rinascente, Frette, as well as inviting pastry shops and cafés. Emporio Armani and other designer boutiques continue on the Corso Italia.

According to ancient historians Naxos was founded in 734 BC after a ship was blown off course as it sailed to southern Italy, and it became the first Greek settlement in Sicily. Naxos never became a powerhouse but was mother city to successive colonies and the setting off point for messengers carrying news back to Greece. The ruins, defensive walls and parts of a temple are enclosed within a nicely kept park. A small museum houses finds from the Greek site, as well as finds recovered from shipwrecks.

Founded by colonists from Messenia, Greece, the city grew up around the harbour, which has always been its focus. In 1908 Messina was levelled by a disastrous earthquake and tidal wave, although parts of the older city survive. Monuments are concentrated around the magnificent harbour, including the Norman Duomo with original portals and sculpture, a 15th-century fountain in the Piazza Duomo and a clock tower whose mechanized figures come to life at noon, the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani with its Norman features, the 1572 monument to Don Giovanni of Austria, and the Museo Regionale, with important works by Antonello da Messina (see Antonello da Messina) and Caravaggio.

Sicily’s first true holiday resort has been drawing visitors for centuries, all of whom fall in love with its sparkling, colourful beauty (see Taormina).

The Madonie range, featuring Sicily’s highest peaks after Mount Etna, extends from Cefalù inland and is protected by the Parco Naturale Regionale delle Madonie. The park encompasses spectacular countryside, forests of beech, chestnuts, cork oaks, poplars and fir, and tiny villages that time seems to have forgotten. The remote villages that once provided refuge to bandits on the run are now good starting points for mountain hikes, horseback riding, cycling and skiing (see Outdoor Activities).

Devoted to the cuisine of Ragusa, Syracuse and Catania, this restaurant focuses on high-quality local produce. The wine list offers more than 20 labels from the Etna region alone.

An actual grotto, this tiny restaurant is a favourite of locals, who proclaim the excellence of the fish.

This popular and friendly trattoria is run by two brothers (not sisters, as the name suggests). The menu changes regularly and there is a good wine list.

In this former Benedictine monastery, set deep within the Madonie Park, you can sample savoury mountain specialities made with local rabbit, lamb and pork, served with fresh vegetables from the proprietors’ farm.

Sicily’s second largest city has had its unhappy share of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and although Catania is rich in monuments dating back to its Greek foundations, the city seen today was built mostly after the massive 1693 earthquake. The rebuilding was largely carried out in the elaborate Baroque style, utilizing the workable local black lava stone. The most important monuments are grouped around the Piazza Duomo with the 1736 Elephant Fountain, the Duomo itself, dedicated to Sant’ Agata and retaining its original Norman apses, the Fish Market in via Garibaldi (see Catania), the Roman theatre, the castle (see Castello di Donnafugata), via Cruciferi with its Baroque palaces, and via Etnea with its shops and cafés.

Europe’s largest active volcano dominates Sicily – from much of the island it is rarely out of sight and never out of mind (see Mount Etna).

The Alcantara River runs at the bottom of a 20-m (65-ft) deep basalt gorge. From the car park, with waders for rent, walk down the steps or take the lift to the bottom, where you can hike between the narrow walls and over waterfalls.