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One of the things I love about our town Giardini Naxos is the feeling of being surrounded by lovely friends, neighbours and friendly local residents. Sometimes a five minute walk to the seafront turns into an hour because you can bump into so many people you know along the way.

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Taormina has always been renowned as a destination for English visitors since the 18th century when the British aristocracy would embark on what was known as 'The Grand Tour' visiting all of continental Europe enjoying the culture and embarking on purchasing fine works of art and antiques.

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In May this year we decided to escape the madness of the G7 summit in Taormina and have a few days away with Daisy our dog. Living in Giardini Naxos we are in the perfect location to discover and explore the eastern side of Sicily at any time and a place of much beauty is the Alcantara Valley.

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The wine industry in Sicily has been going through a period of rapid change over the past twenty years. The popularity and prestige of Sicilian wine is rapidly on the rise.

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Taormina is Sicily's first true holiday resort and has been drawing visitors to the island for centuries, all of whom fall in love with its sparkling and colourful beauty. Taormina makes a fabulous holiday with glorious hotels, restaurants and shops as well as gorgeous beaches and beautiful gardens. It is a great base for exploring the rest of the island and boasts a micro-climate all year round.

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The coastline from Aci Castello just north of Catania to Aci Trezza, south of Taormina is called Riviera dei Ciclopi (The Riviera of the Cyclops) and it is an area of outstanding beauty, full of myths and legends.

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Nelson's Column in London is one of the most famous monuments in the world, but have you ever heard of Nelson's Castle? Well, it exists, and it is in Sicily!

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Taormina has always been renowned as a destination for British visitors ever since the 18th Century with many leaving a legacy of history and romance giving the town a quintessential British touch. From the Grand Tour to poets, writers, movie stars and pop idols you can find evidence of the British Isles everywhere.

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Sicily is an island full of much history, culture, folklore and traditions.

Puppet theatres (teatro dei pupi) have been popular in Sicily since the fourteenth century but really became popular in the 1800's and provided nightly entertainment for thousands of Sicilians who would watch the good guys fight the bad guys in stories of adventure and romance. Travelling puppet theatres drew huge crowds in smaller villages.

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Sicily is where Europe ends and Africa begins. It began its history as part of Ancient Greece and soon became part of the Roman Empire. Thereafter the island was invaded by the Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French, Spanish and Bourbons before unifying with Italy.

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Growing up in South London the area I lived in had a large community of Italian families and therefore a lot of kids I went to school with were Italian with many of their parents coming from Sicily. Being invited to a friend's house after school to play was always exciting fun and involved being fed full with wonderful Mediterranean food such as pasta, pizza and ice cream.

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The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner thought to have originated in Sicily and it is a wonderful traditional feast to share with friends and loved ones.

Christmas Eve is a vigil or fasting day and the abundance of seafood reflects the tradition of abstinence from red meat until the actual feast of Christmas Day itself. It is a meal that typically consists of seven different seafood dishes. In Sicily and Southern Italy it is known as La Vigilia (The Vigil) which commemorates the wait, the Vigilia di Natale, the midnight birth of the baby Jesus.

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Sicily is famous for its street food and one of the most popular is Panelle which is a Sicilian fast food snack available in bars, from street vendors and are occasionally found in restaurants.

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There are many love stories associated with the island both fact and fiction. From stories of nymphs and river gods from Greek mythology, love struck Hollywood movie stars, books written by some of the worlds most famous literary authors of all time, films about Sicily and filmed in Sicily and dramatic operas that depict lives of lost loves and loveless marriages. Some with happy endings and some with not so happy endings.

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Last month whilst flying into Catania airport on a clear and sunny January day I could see all the beautiful orange groves that cover the plains of Catania and foothills of Mount Etna. This time of year is a wonderful time to visit Sicily as all the groves are heaving with orange trees bearing their abundance of juicy colourful fruits. 

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Located in the middle of the Mediterranean, Sicily has a mixture of ancient history which creates a unique and timeless atmosphere.

Sicily formed a significant portion of Ancient Greece and was strategically vital to the Roman Empire, thereafter the island was invaded in succession by countless vestiges of invading powers.

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With my love of all things Italian and my husbands love of gangster movies it seemed like the perfect place for us to visit. After a lot of research I booked our flights to Catania and the charming Hotel Villa Sirina which is nestled between Taormina and Giardini Naxos. As soon as we first glimpsed the peak of a smoking Mount Etna through the airplane window and our feet touched the tarmac at the airport we had already fallen in love with the island.