We are on holidays - catching up on some reading and have been enjoying Douglas Sladen's 1905 book, " Sicily The New Winter Resort". It is a classic. Here is the opening sentence in chapter one-

" Sicily is the best winter resort in Europe : its climate is more equable than the Riviera,it has no mistral,and there is more to interest people who go abroad to see fresh scenes,and not merely to reproduce English life under more genial skies."

Buon Natale a tutti! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, enjoy the festive season. 

We would like to leave you with a lovely image of  Teatro Massimo in Palermo dressed up with its Christmas lights.

From Suzanne and the team at The Sicilian House  

Thinking of the late, night time silence of Christmas in the narrow, lit streets of Polizzi when the perfume of burning wood fires is in the misty air and the snow on the Madonie mountains is fresh I remember the enchantment of Christmases away in Sicily: a wreath made from the evergreen plants of the wintery, Sicilian mountains; nativity scenes, the gift of a decorated mountain fir tree; the taste of Sicilian Christmas fig biscuits; the burning of a candle; the smell of freshly peeled clementines and oranges.

Taormina beckons me every time I am in Sicily. It is a dramatic, curious 'la dolce vita' town from antiquity with secret gardens and follies, and alleyways which lead off open vibrant piazzas. Perched 200m above the blue Ionian Sea on Sicily’s eastern coast at the foot of Monte Tauro, about 50 minutes from Catania, it manages to keep what Raleigh Trevelyn calls 'its mountain village charm'.