Restaurant in a converted oil mill with much-coveted terrace overlooking the sea (the views are beautiful but, more importantly for Italians, it's outside so you can smoke). The main attraction is the lobster, clams, sea bass, cuttlefish and just about anything else that can be removed from water with a net, pot or hook. But it's also a great place to come to watch people make idiots of themselves: get a table in the atmospheric stone-walled interior (much more room, aircon), order a prosecco and watch as the beautiful people attempt to beg, threaten or bribe their way on to the terrace. We saw cash, fags and what looked like an offer of sex, but the maitre d' stood firm: no prenotazione, no prime preening spot.

Via Bordonaro 96

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Hidden in a piazza away from Palermo's traffic clogged streets, Pizzeria Bellini offers a slice of pure Sicilian drama (apt as it sits behind the theatre with which it shares it name). Rock up around 8pm to join the long queue of chattering punters eager for an outdoor table with romantic views of the old Roman wall and San Cataldo's red domes. Sip on deliciously cheap, local, house vino rosso whilst you wait (& it does take a while) for a huge pizza to arrive hot from the wood-fired oven. Look out for regional toppings with sardine, fennel and pinenuts. And, if your stomach can take the strain, indulge in every good godfather's vice - homemade cannoli.

Piazza Bellini, just off Corso Vittorio Emanuelle, Palermo

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A few miles down the road from the super-refined Taormina is the much more gritty (though no less charming) fishing village of Letojanni (it's a short bus run from the bottom of the cable car at Taormina). Join the evening passegiata along the front, then take your pick from the run of beachfront fish restaurants.

We plumped for Da Nina, where a meal of fresh-catch giant prawns, squid, tuna and swordfish costs around €30 with wine. Sun set over the Straits of Messina was the pearl in the oysters.

Via Luigi Rizzo, 29
Tel: 0942 36147

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A restaurant perched high above Taormina (take a taxi there and back). Breathtaking views over the Gulf of Naxos and Etna. Excellent local food and wine. Romance on a plate.

Salita Castello, 98030 Castelmola
Tel: 0942 28180
www.ristoranteilmaniero.com/

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