The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
TEN WAYS SICILY BEATS THE REST OF ITALY FOR YOUNG FAMILIES
Gelato Not a uniquely Sicilian treat, but the Sicilians feel they do it best. Who are we to disagree?
Food Pasta, of course, but seafood too. Coastal villages have fishmongers where the fishermen bring home their fish, squid or shrimp, which you can buy or eat at a café next door.
Weather Avoid the crushing heat of summer. Spring and autumn are ideal.
Distance Flights from a mere two-and-a-half hours; more tolerable than four hours to the resorts of Greece.
Islands off the island A boat trip to the Egadi Islands is easy and quick from Trapani, while the Aeolian Islands are accessible from
Milazzo.
Beaches
There’s a lot of coastline – some of it protected in natural reserves, ves, like Vendicari, south of Syracuse, se, or Lo Zingaro, west of Palermo, the biggest city on Sicily. Culture The Temples at Agrigento or the great Norman basilica at Monreale have the jaw-dropping power to stop even small children in their tracks. Variety in a small ar area is Sicily’s chief attraction. If one thing t doesn’t wor work, just zip to the next.
Mount Etna If you yo land in Catania, Catan the great volcano volcan will loom over you as a you arrive. What? An actual, real volcano? Children C can’t quite contain their excitement. excite sums up Sicily is Di Lampedusa’s The Leopard. The masterpiece describes the six months from May to October as an inferno “as long and glum as the Russian winter and against which we struggle with less success”. So best not to go in high summer. April, or late October, by contrast, stand in perfect anticipation of and conclusion to the heat. While in April the island is carpeted with an astonishing assortment of wild flowers, in October you can take to the hiking trails without having to stop every five minutes for a drink. The locals, bundled up against what they fear is the hypothermia to be endured at a mere 77F (25C), have no thought of heading to the beaches. So they are empty. Parking, a nightmare in high season, is free and easy, right up to the dunes.
The great thing about Sicily, and why it has so much to recommend it, is its astonishing, palimpsestuous variety, not only of civilisation: Greek, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Norman, Spanish; but of activity, too: from cultural excursion to city exploration to sun-lounging laze, all within easy reach in a day.
Setting out each morning, therefore, presented an unpredictably rich menu, and one which we could alter as required. An hour here or there, scrambling through the streets of beautiful Modica, say, then recharging with an ice cream, before spending the afternoon on the beach near Pachino. Indeed, there is so much to see in Sicily, that you could exhaust yourself trying to cram it all in.
Joyfully, with a three and five-year-old in tow, there is no prospect of that. An impressionistic snapshot of each place is all you can hope to capture. We took Hill towns Modica, Ragusa, Ortigia are blissful, often pedestrianised, mazes to explore, full of steps to run up and down, nooks and alleyways for the children to poke their noses into while you drink in the surrounding beauty – and maybe a well-earned Birra Moretti, too.
Reception Sicilians are a little more reserved than many Italians. But it’s still a culture which treasures children and where you are welcomed – not sighed at – when you arrive with the bambini. the mini tourist trains to the tops of hill towns then ran down the steps. You can and should save your energy likewise at Agrigento; perhaps the most celebrated site on the island for its succession of Greek temples, breathtaking even for a former Athens correspondent like me. Park at the bottom, then catch a taxi to the top, and walk the mile or so down. Three euros a head seems pricey for a four-minute journey, but it’s worth it to maximise the energy in little legs.
We stopped at Agrigento, halfway across a traverse of the island, after three nights in our comfortable agriturismo. From south-east to northwest, the whole slalom took four or so hours. The landscape is dramatic, unyielding. The cypresses reach up through craggy outcrops, not gently undulating vineyards, and towns emerge between the cleft of hills or, around a sudden bend, on top of them.
The great joy of arriving at a villa is that you can unpack everything. While our agriturismo was a base, and ideal for a few days (longer if you are travelling as a couple) the villa was a destination in itself, on the days when we simply wanted to lie around. Note: Sicilians do not heat up their pools, so they may be brisk – but sea swimming is one reason to come in autumn – the water maintains a temperature of about 72F (22C). But whatever its temperature, you must demand a pool with a fence around it, like ours. Who can relax when you have to keep the little ones under supervision? And if your pool can’t be heated, make sure your villa can. Even if the days are blazing, autumn nights can get cold.
Our villa was superbly comfortable, and kitted out thoughtfully, like a real home, and was a great launching point for day trips to Palermo and, perhaps most astonishingly of all, Monreale. I endured enough ABC (Another Blasted Church) tours in my childhood – and now inflict the same – to feel that I am a reasonable judge of churches.
In fact, a year before our visit to Monreale we were in St Peter’s in Rome. But there is no comparison. Monreale, outside and in, is possibly the most extraordinary church I have ever been in. Even the boys fell silent and sat in awe at the fabulous golden mosaics. Norman Sicily at its finest.
You will, sadly, inevitably see Sicily at its worst, too. The scourge of fly-tipping and rubbish is a disgrace that stains the island – and stands out as a greater blot because of the beauty of the natural backdrop. From A-roads to country lanes, everything from stinking plastic bags to entire discarded bathrooms is too often simply junked. Rubbish collection seems spasmodic. It is not something to deter you from going, but be warned, when you do you will sigh more than once at the ruination.
But mostly you will be gasping in wonder at the ruins. And the ice cream. Those are the memories that will endure. Along with a sense that somehow your visit contributes another patina to an island that has experienced and been shaped by millennia of foreign arrivals and departures, and yet somehow remains distinctly its own.
Prestige Holidays has a seven-night stay in Sicily at Relais Torre Marabino, departing Oct 20, from £1,485 per adult and £799 per child based on two adults and two children sharing a suite on a B&B basis. This includes return flights with easyJet from London Gatwick to Catania and a hire car for the duration (prestigeholidays.co.uk). If you would like to replicate the writer’s dual-destination trip, Prestige offers three nights at the Relais, with the same flight and car hire for the duration of the
10-night trip, for £1,179 per adult and £799 per child. For an additional cost, a week at Villa Renee with soloSicily (solosicily. com) costs from €1,910 (£1,702) sleeping six, self-catering.