Our week at the Villa Quartarella, formerly the home of a well-known Sicilian painter, was a delight from beginning to end. The house is an elegant, symmetrical single-storey pavilion built in the early twentieth century but with a nod to the eighteenth in its plan and its long, straight approach. Surrounded by open fields, it is thoughtfully and comfortably furnished with window shutters and period marble floors throughout. There is a most beautiful walled garden with a swimming pool. The view from the terrace is stupendous, the sea on the horizon. Cleverly sited, the villa benefits from gentle cooling breezes, which greatly reduce the nuisance of mosquitoes in the evening. The lovely sandy beach at Sampieri is a short drive away, as are the gorgeous baroque towns of Scicli, Modica, Ragusa, Ispica and Noto. Salvatore and Lorenza, who look after the property for Paola, its owner, went to great trouble to make us feel immediately at home. A magical place, I cannot recommend it too highly.