Northern SicilySeverná Sicília

If you like good food, go to Sicily. We spent 5 days there and it was genuinely great. We started on the east of the island in the town of Messina and finished in the northwest in Palermo. Along the way we saw a bit of everything, shabby buildings and beautiful villas, poor fishermen and Sicilian high society.

We had an authentic Sicilian dinner, recommended to us by a local fisherman, during which, as part of an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink deal, we ate a huge amount of different dishes (all of them brutal) and drank an unreasonable amount of wine and other alcohol. We camped on a beautiful beach beneath a huge cliff, right next to a cave that connects two beaches through a natural tunnel. We lived through a three-minute storm, during which a grand total of about 6 drops fell, which paradoxically caused total panic on the beach (the locals apparently aren't used to summer rain, it was pretty funny).

Compared to the last stage it was noticeably warmer, and between two and five in the afternoon we'd always end up sitting somewhere in the shade. The locals are adapted to these conditions, every shop and restaurant is simply closed from lunchtime until evening, and people are either in the sea or at home. Sardinia is ahead of us, and even though we're sad to leave Sicilian specialties behind, we're already looking forward to milder temperatures.