Mustique : Book now with SJ Villas
Sicily
1
For the best fresh fish, sushi and sashimi, head to the fish market in Catania for lunch. Booking is essential!
tel: +39 095 348197
2
The best lunch I have ever had… ever… was at I Rizzari in Brucoli, a beach-shack trattoria with a waterside deck and views of Mt Etna. Try and get one of the few tables outside overlooking the Mediterranean. Always cammed with locals, it offers a menu based on fresh fish caught each morning. It’s closed on Wednesdays and booking is essential at weekends.
I Rizzari
Via Liberta, 63, Brucoli
tel: +39 031982709 – mob: +39 0328 2754819
3
Il Canale has only three tables and three dishes to choose from: mussels, spaghetti, and spaghetti and mussels.
mob: +39 0328 865 4432
4
Spend a day in beautiful Taormina, sitting on the terrace of Belmond’s Grand Hotel Timeo, gazing across at the coast of mainland Italy.
Restaurant, Grand Hotel Timeo
Via Teatro Greco, 59, Taormina
Email – tel: + 39 0942 627 0200
5
Take another day out to admire the beautiful Baroque architecture of Noto.
6
And stop for a gelato in perhaps Sicily’s best known gelateria, Caffé Sicilia
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 125, Noto
tel: +39 0931 835 013
7
Andrea Ercolani takes tours up Mount Etna and the Madonies. He provides boots, jackets and water, drives you to the cable car, then an ATV takes you to within 90 minutes’ walk of the top.
tel: +39 095 968 882
Etna is monitored by seismological instruments which, in theory, warn of imminent activity.
8
Head to Siracusa for even more culture and lunch at Don Camillo, by far the top place in town. Their frittura di pesci goes beyond the habitual calamari and prawns to include bass, crab, eel and sardines.
Don Camillo
Via Maestranza, 96, Siracusa
tel: +39 0931 67133
9
Pop into the Ortigia boutique for the best candles, soaps, scents and other gifts.
Ortigia
Via Roma, 21,
Siracusa tel: +39 0931 461365
10
And you can’t go home without one of those wonderful Sicilian pottery ‘heads’ – dreadfully kitsch but glorious nonetheless (there is a shop in Catania airport that sells them too).
Ceramiche di Caltagirone SOFIA
Via Balchino, 16/Bis, Caltagirone
tel: +39 0933 31657