Sicily is not quite Italy. It has been Greek, Roman, Arab, Norman, Spanish, and Italian — in that order, over three thousand years — and it has absorbed each occupation without losing itself. The result is a culture of extraordinary complexity and a landscape that looks like nowhere else on earth. Etna smoking on the horizon. Baroque towns carved from golden limestone. Greek temples standing in almond groves as if nobody thought to mention they were remarkable.

The luxury traveller comes here later than they should. Sicily spent decades dismissed as too complicated, too rough around the edges, too far from the northern Italian cities that dominate the conversation. That is changing. The hotels have arrived — quietly, carefully, in the right places. The food was always extraordinary. The wine is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Come before everyone else catches up. The window is still open.