It was by Sicily’s Ionian Sea south of Taormina when I first saw the exotic foil images on the colourful, embossed boxes of the small soap and fragrance company Ortigia Sicilia’s perfumes.

Names of Sicilian plants have inspired the fragrances; Melograno (pomegranate) Zagara (orange blossom) and Fico d’India (Indian fig) and images of exotic animals in silver foil; they conjure an orientalism and stir memories.

It’s July 3rd 2010, Palazzo Notar Nicchi is ready for its welcoming party.

The house is ablaze with lights and every shutter is open to the street. Old terracotta oil jars full of wild flowers from the mountains stand in rooms filled with friends and family from Australia, London, Milan, Palermo and Polizzi Generosa. You can hear the music of a folk Sicilian band and jazz. Seven years ago these rooms were empty, floors were sunken and the walls were collapsing.