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Puppet theatres offer rip-roaring, gory re-enactments of the Norman crusader sword fights, lively music, and encourage the audience to root for a favourite crusader. The puppets “speak” in Italian, or Sicilian dialect, but an English-language written account of the story is usually provided by the theatre. In any event, it’s easy enough to follow the action without understanding every word (see Puppet Traditions and Museums).

All of Sicily’s invaders needed to defend their position, so they built fortified castles along the coastline and on high points inland to guard the roads and towns. Sicily’s countless castles are rich in history and offer plenty of good romping around the ramparts, searching for secret passageways, dungeons, trapdoors, tiny spy windows and hidden places from which the occupants would pour boiling oil down onto the enemy (see Castles).

The bathing establishments found on most beaches offer chair and umbrella rentals, and many rent out pedal boats and watersports equipment such as windsurfing boards. Kids love snorkelling in Sicily’s clear waters, where an entire ecosystem of fish and shellfish live near the shoreline. Masks, flippers, floating boards and other snorkelling equipment can be purchased from even the smallest of shops in seaside villages (see Beaches).

Just south of Trapani, the small museum of salt is located inside a restored windmill. Its fascinating exhibits show how the windmill transfers water from pool to pool and grinds the harvested salt. Work in the salt pans themselves is on-going and you can see each stage that goes into transforming sea water to table salt (see Saline, Salt Pans).

Baroque architecture made good use of hideous monsters, goofy Turks (the long-standing Sicilian enemy), animals and chubby flying angels on horseback as supports for balconies or general decoration on the exteriors of buildings. Usually located under balconies, they also lurk above windows and doors, on corners, along the cornices and even on city gates.

The Syracuse Acquario offers a close look at marine life in the Mediterranean, housed in 40 different tanks. Additional sections are dedicated to freshwater and tropical habitats. Located at the Fonte Aretusa on the island of Ortygia, entry is from the marina below.

The archaeological park on the island of Motya starts and ends with a short boat ride across the lagoon (less than 10 minutes each way). The park itself is wide open, and offers excellent examples to inquisitive kids of how the Phoenicians and then the Carthaginians lived and fortified their villages. In addition to Motya, all of Sicily’s archaeological parks offer space to run around and usually ruins to climb about on (see Motya).

Sicily is full of pizzerie (see Restaurants), many of which are specifically geared towards families. Often they are outfitted with playgrounds and video games. At such venues, the traditional pizza toppings often give way to children’s idiosyncracies – don’t be surprised to find the dough base topped with hotdogs and French fries, for example. Kids particularly enjoy Boffo’s Castle, the Selinunte pizzeria built to resemble a fanciful Norman castle.

Swimming pools are available at holiday villages (see Resort Hotels) and some other hotels, but don’t expect lifeguards to be on duty, or if they are, to be particularly attentive. Seaside villages often have a nearby water park, such as Acquasplash near Selinunte, with supervised wave pools, slides, a pizzeria or snack bar, as well as other diversions.

Sicily’s nature reserves are good places to spot wildlife, climb about, picnic and go swimming. Hiking trails are graded for various levels of expertise. Mount Etna is probably the most fascinating for kids and adults alike – the volcano is always at least smoking, if not throwing red sparks into the air. Guides give a lively account of lava flowing underfoot and the gift shops screen spectacular video footage from past eruptions.