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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A small fishing village between Palermo and the airport. Most of the seafront restaurants serve a 6 - 7 course set lunch (around 20 euros). No menu as such, just what's been caught fresh that morning. Bottle of wine or two included. I've never seen anyone who's not Italian eating there and its time to share this wonderful place. Ryanair's summer schedule means you can have a decadent day out and have lunch in the Med (if you don't mind the early start). Delfina is the one I'd recommend. It's busy between 1-3pm when the locals descend for their feed but I've never had to wait too long for a table.

www.sferracavallo.com
Central Palermo by cab is around 20 euros and takes around 20 minutes, traffic permitting. Local trains stop close by en route to/from the airport.

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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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