Where to stay in Sicily: the best areas and hotels

Taormina clings to a terrace on Monte Tauro, high above the Ionian Sea, and it has been dazzling visitors since the days of the Grand Tour. Its pedestrianised main street, Corso Umberto, is lined with boutiques, churches and café terraces, and its ancient theatre frames a view of the coast and smoking Etna that ranks among the finest in the Mediterranean.

Below the town, the beaches of Mazzarò and the tiny island of Isola Bella, a nature reserve, are linked to the centre by cable car, and some of Sicily's best hotels sit right by the sea. Up in town, grand old villas and palazzi offer pools and terraces with knockout views. It's busy in summer, glamorous all year and rarely cheap.

Catania has been knocked down by Etna and by earthquakes and rebuilt each time, most spectacularly in the 18th century, in a sweeping Baroque style using the volcano's own black lava stone. Its centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, revolves around the elephant fountain in the Piazza del Duomo, the raucous morning fish market and the long, straight Via Etnea, which points directly at the volcano.

It's the island's main gateway, with its busiest airport just outside town, and a lively base for exploring the east. South of the centre, La Playa is a long sandy beach with resort hotels; up on Etna's slopes, towns such as Zafferana Etnea have peaceful hotels looking out over the mountain's green southern flank.

Syracuse was once one of the greatest cities of the Greek world, a rival to Athens, and its ancient heart is the little island of Ortigia, joined to the mainland by bridges. Here the cathedral is built around the columns of a Greek temple to Athena, the oval Piazza Duomo glows gold at dusk, and the freshwater Fountain of Arethusa, sprouting papyrus, bubbles up a few steps from the sea.

Ortigia is the place to stay: compact and walkable, packed with seafood restaurants and bars, with swimming off the rocks and a bustling morning market. Hotels range from grand five-stars a few metres from the water to boutique addresses just across the bridge. On the mainland, the archaeological park, with its Greek theatre and the cave known as the Ear of Dionysius, is a short taxi ride away.

After an earthquake flattened the old town in 1693, Noto was rebuilt from scratch on a new site as a showpiece of Sicilian Baroque, and the result is breathtaking: a stage set of golden limestone churches, palaces and grand staircases along the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, with the cathedral at its heart.

Stay in town in a Baroque palazzo or boutique B&B a few steps from the Palazzo Nicolaci, or out in the countryside, where old farmhouses and grand estates have become some of Sicily's most stylish rural hotels. The Vendicari nature reserve, with its wild beaches and flamingos, is a short drive away.

Ragusa is really two towns: the upper, newer town and Ragusa Ibla, an exquisite Baroque old town on a hill of its own, reached by steep stairways with spectacular views. Along with nearby Modica, famous for its grainy chocolate, and Scicli, it shares Noto's UNESCO listing, and fans of the Inspector Montalbano TV series will recognise many of the streets.

The countryside around is a patchwork of dry-stone walls, carob and olive trees, and some of the best places to stay are out here: a historic estate offering cooking classes and e-bike tours, and a country hotel with horse riding. Closer to Ibla, an 18th-century villa has frescoed halls. You will need a car.

Palermo is Sicily turned up to full volume. Its street markets, Ballarò, the Capo and the Vucciria, are a riot of swordfish, spices and bellowing stallholders, and its street food, from arancine to panelle, is the stuff of legend. In between are Arab-Norman churches glowing with golden mosaics, the vast Teatro Massimo opera house, the cathedral and the Baroque crossroads of the Quattro Canti.

Stay in the historic centre for atmosphere, in boutique suites near the Quattro Canti or the grand old hotels on and around Via Roma. For a seaside base, Mondello, Palermo's beach, is a short drive north, and Villa Igiea, built for the Florio family at the foot of Monte Pellegrino, is one of the island's great hotels. The airport is about half an hour away.

Agrigento's Valley of the Temples, which is actually a ridge, is one of the greatest collections of ancient Greek architecture outside Greece: a line of honey-coloured Doric temples among almond and olive trees. The Temple of Concordia, from the 5th century BC, is one of the best-preserved Greek temples in the world, and seeing it lit up at night is unforgettable.

One hotel sits right inside the archaeological park, a short walk from the temples; others are in the modern hilltop town or in the countryside nearby. The coast is close, too: San Leone has a sandy beach, and the dazzling white cliffs of the Scala dei Turchi are a short drive west.

San Vito lo Capo, out on Sicily's north-western tip, has one of the island's best beaches: a long crescent of white sand and startlingly turquoise water, watched over by the hulking Monte Monaco. Nearby lies the wild Zingaro nature reserve, all cliffs and hidden coves, and every September the town hosts a famous couscous festival, a nod to North Africa just across the water.

Hotels are mostly relaxed four-stars a short walk from the sand, plus a holiday village with its own beach at Cala Mancina. Less than an hour south, the port city of Trapani has a handsome Baroque old town, ferries to the Egadi Islands, salt pans dotted with windmills and a cable car up to the medieval hilltop town of Erice.