September trims some of the excess heat from the Sicilian summer. The biggest island in the Mediterranean can swelter in temperatures in the upper 30s in July and August, but by the ninth month of the year, its ardour has generally diminished to something rather more palatable. A perfect window, then, to visit east-coast Taormina, where the hillside theatre, built in the third century BC, offers ancient Greek finesse in the Italian sunshine.
How to do it
Sicily4U boasts a range of properties on the island. You can still rent the palatial Villa Mare Azzurro – which can sleep up to eight, in the nearby town of Letojanni – during the week of September 26, for €10,017 (€1,252 per person at full occupancy). Excluding flights.
