We return to Palermo; it is one of the best cities for urban photography with its extraordinary mishmash of architectural styles and long perspectives down narrow streets. The extensive use of brown and dull red marble above dark grey flagstones give it a sombre tone. But the past is etched with the exuberant present, including colourful but perennially crowded markets, endless suicidal Lambrettas, balconies full of flowers and flaking walls covered with brash and often bawdy graffiti. Pranzi lunghi (long lunches) on shaded pavements and piazzas or in tightly packed corners of the Mercado de Ballarò appear obligatory.

Segesta is secreted in the hills above Castellammare del Golfo and is a long abandoned Greek city with a chequered history with frequent battles with Selinus to the south. Today, like Paestum on the mainland, it is a place of great beauty and tranquility.

Castellammare del Golfo was the port to Segesta and is a pretty harbour full of restaurants and a long line of booths selling boat trips along the wild coast to the north. Each morning a flotilla of boats of all shapes and sizes filled with tourists lathered in lozione abbronzante departs to explore the many beaches, bays and caves before the pranzo lungo at San Vito Lo Capo.

Selinunte was a great Greek city by the sea with a long and often brutal history; today, even though most is just a pile of toppled stone, it is a beautiful and tranquil coastal landscape. The huge Temple of Hera, one of seven, was reconstructed stone by stone in the 1950s and this today provides a focal point for the many visitors.

But the most ancient of all is the countryside with its groves and fields of olives, grapes, cereals, sunflowers and bright yellow melons.

The owner of the wonderful Fazio winery was as interested in melon growing as growing Nero d’Avola, Nerello Mascalese, Syrah, Müller Thurgau and Grillo grapes. The wines were aromatic and delicious, naturally improving with every glass at the tasting.