'Europe seems so far off, here in Sicily. Like another world," wrote DH Lawrence in 1920. And that's the main attraction, really. Far enough south to claim the highest average daily rate of sunshine in Europe coupled with the food of Italy and brilliant beaches. All within easy reach, without a marathon long-distance flight. It was even described in one newspaper last month as: "rich, dramatic, beguiling, wild, stunning, glitzy and alluring".
That's why we thought we'd landed in the wrong place. Exiting the aircraft in Catania and picking up the hire car, the first impressions were that we'd chosen Middlesbrough for a week-long break with the children. Catania, with its rubbish-strewn streets, drab high-rise blocks and a smell in the air that suggested some nasty form of animal re-processing went on for mile after mile. It was at this point that I began to blame the bear.
At my daughter's school, there is a teddy known as the travelling bear. Any child going somewhere the children think is interesting gets to take the bear and returns with photographic evidence. The bear has been pictured all over Britain, at the Taj Mahal, in Hawaii, on the slopes of Everest. We'd never qualified to take the bear. So it was puzzling when Niamh brought it home at the start of the Easter break.
"I told them we were going to Italy," she said. What had actually happened was that she had overheard a conversation involving her brother which went something like: "Romans is my favourite topic in history. Can't we go to Italy," producing the standard reply: "Yes, one day."
That made the Alitalia (alitalia.com) special offer look all the more attractive at £135 return per person. With the flights booked, it was easy enough to secure a hotel direct over the telephone without having to go through a travel agent.
Heading north up the motorway, the clouds darkened and it began to rain - bad luck when the tourist brochures boast of 2,000 hours of sun a year. In the gloom, we eventually reached Taormina. A big mistake, that timing. The combination of darkness, an unfamiliar, left-hand drive car, the narrowest of roads climbing hundreds of metres through S-bend after S-bend, locals descending at speed in front, ascending with irritated slowness behind and the front-seat passenger saying: "Do you realise how close you are to that wall?" every 60 seconds was specifically designed to shred, grate and neatly dice the nerves.
But then things picked up. San Domenico Palace Hotel (thi.it/english/hotel/san_domenico/) dates back to the 1400s when it was part monastery, part convent, only to be converted to the tourist trade almost a century ago. The next day, as we thankfully began to eat into that 2,000 hours of sunshine, the monks' and nuns' loss and the tourists' gain was clear.
Monks cells are now luxury rooms. The Renaissance and religious feeling seems barely disturbed by such 21st-century trappings as mini-bars and satellite TVs, the conversion of the old refectory into a cocktail bar and the terrace for contemplation and prayer now used for breakfast.
It's Easter and outside the main dining room is a six-foot tall Easter egg on a plinth in the centre of a pen containing a dozen live chicks. A definite child-pleaser on day one, a little pungent to the nostrils by the end of the week.
The setting is stunning. Maybe even "rich, dramatic, wild, glitzy and alluring". A steep drop down the cliff face to the beaches and Mediterranean sea far below, dozens of lemon and orange trees in fruit and, in the distance, the outline of the upper reaches of Etna, snow covered in the sun. The bear looks pleased to be here.
Taormina, with its narrow medieval streets, is dominated at one end by a Greek-built (300BC) theatre carved out of the hillside above the sea. It was rebuilt in Roman times to stage gladiatorial combat before crowds of up to 5,000. At the other end is the cathedral, San Nicolo, dating from the 13th century.
On Good Friday night, the shutters of the shops rolled down, the music and tills stopped in the bars and restaurants. Along the main street, only four metres wide, about a hundred local women walked in double file, clad completely in black, heads covered with mantillas, escorting statues of Christ on the cross and a weeping Mary. The children following behind carry symbols: nails, hammers, crowns of thorns. Hundreds of spectators cram into doorways, on ledges and steps to watch. And all in complete silence; the only noise is an eerie shuffling of feet as the procession passes by.
It must have been much the same when DH Lawrence lived here. He said Taormina felt as if he had turned his back on Europe. In the two or so years he stayed, Women In Love and The Lost Girl were published. But folklore has it that Taormina provided the inspiration for Lady Chatterley's Lover. In this version, Lady Chatterley is his wife Frieda and the role of Mellors is played by one Peppino D'Allura. Peppino, a mule driver for a local wine merchant, is said to have visited Lawrence's house one day when the author was absent. Mrs Lawrence was said to have made the mule driver particularly welcome.
Lawrence's villa, the Fontana Vecchia, was taken over exactly 30 years later by Truman Capote, who said it inspired him to write The Grass Harp.
Among the scores of bars in the town is Wunderbar, a particular favourite of Capote and Tennessee Williams. And of Elizabeth Taylor. She wasn't there, though, on the night we popped in.
There's a similar variety of restaurants, all open late, all welcoming children. Our nine-year-old boy, a devout adherent to the philosophy of "the only thing I like is margherita pizza, I know I don't like anything else", was by the end devouring all sorts of pastas and fish. On the last night, an innocent enquiry by my wife about the exact nature of the maccheroni sauce led to a visit to the restaurant kitchen, detailed instructions from the chef and a bag full of wild fennel.
Two musts: a boat trip around the bay, exploring the blue grotto caves, seeing the red coral. Our boatman, named Carlo, interspersed chat with snatches of opera. And a trip to Etna. The volcano's height fluctuates according to eruptions but it is 3,313m today. Olive trees in abundance on the slopes gradually give way to pines and beech. The villages are of a similar pattern: built of lava stones with black lava paved streets, all of them dominated by an imposing church, often cut into the volcanic hillside at a seemingly impossible angle.
The lava flows are everywhere - which is why we don't feel guilty about the lump of black rock that now takes pride of place on the nine-year-old's desk, his very own piece of volcano.
· The BNL film festival (part of the Taormina Arte festival) is held in the Greek Amphitheatre (Teatro Greco) from June 7-14.
Way to go
Getting there: Magic of Italy (0870 8880220, magictravelgroup.co.uk) offers the Hotel San Domenico Palace for £1,535pp for both adults and children. This includes flights from Gatwick to Catania, a twin room with a balcony and a sea view, half-board (compulsory at this hotel for June and July) and private transfers. Thomas Cook (0870 7522960, thomascook.com) offers seven nights' half-board at the Hotel Ariston in Taormina from £570 per adult and £550 per child travelling on July 19 from Gatwick.
Further information: Italian Tourist Board (0906 brochure line 09065 508925, enit.it).
Country code: 00 39.
Flight time London-Catania: 3hrs, 10 mins.
Time difference: +1hr.
£1 = 1.36 euros.
