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After visiting Etna, we made our way south to the ancient port of Siracusa, where we based ourselves for several days in the old city of Ortigia. On a surprisingly small yet densely packed peninsula jutting into the bay and surrounded by clear waters, Ortigia is everything you could want as a base for exploring southeast Sicily. With charming narrow streets and alleys, a plethora of old buildings displaying the architectural styles of different eras from ancient Greek to Baroque and everything in between, and filled with boutique hotels, B&Bs, wine bars and restaurants, Ortigia is perhaps the most stylish and charming yet still somehow authentic urban centre in Sicily.

Ortigia’s food scene is set by the raucous daily outdoor market that occupies most of Via Emanuele de Benedictis, which stretches three blocks down from the evocative ruins of the 6C BC Greek Temple of Apollo to the charmless Talete parkade structure on the waterfront. Unsurprisingly, seafood predominates.

We had some memorable meals and wines in Ortigia:

Lunch at Sicilia in Tavola (on Via Cavour) began with a fresh, intriguing salad of sliced fennel, anchovies and orange segments, drizzled in olive oil and fresh ground black pepper. This was followed by a classic pasta di frutti di mare – linguine with shrimp, langoustine, mussels, clams, squid, fresh peeled small tomatoes and chopped parsley. I asked our waiter for his recommendation on their best dry white wine and he proffered a bottle of Alessandro di Camporeale’s Grillo Vigna di Mandranova 2017, which comes from the town of that name in the hill country inland from Palermo. Grillo is yet another native grape to Sicily, and this example was excellent, with great linearity, poise and bracing acidity balancing the fruit.

A stop for a glass of wine at venerable wine bar Solaria yields up an intriguing (and not entirely convincing) glass of Don Pippinu Carricante 2016 from Vini Scirto, who make this Terre Siciliane IGT wine following natural winemaking practices from vineyards on the volcanic slopes of Etna, with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. All treatments and harvesting are done by hand, and the wine underwent spontaneous fermentation with ambient yeasts. Minimal sulphur was added. As an ‘orange’ wine it is interesting and authentic, but it’s oxidized and frankly not to my taste.

The bottle of Le Sabbie dell’Etna 2017 Etna Bianco from up and coming producer Firriato that we had at another wine bar (whose name I sadly can’t remember) was far more convincing.

Syraka is a more upscale room than most in Ortigia, with white tablecloth service and a quiet thoughtfulness to its food offerings. We had perhaps our most refined meal yet in Sicily, beginning with a shockingly vibrant salad of Pachino tomatoes, red onion, basil and ricotta cheese, and followed by a sublime grilled tuna belly with lime and grilled peppers. This is cooking like your mother never did (unless she is Sicilian). The bluefin tuna fishery – the infamous ‘La Mattanza‘ cull of years past – has a long history in Sicily, but it’s now only available fresh in May and June. It was our great good luck to be here then, when huge slabs of the dark red meat are on vivid display in all the street markets.

Our meal was washed down (if that’s not too cavalier a term) with a delicious bottle of Feudo Luparello’s Noto DOP Rosso 2014 – a modern, elegant blend of the local Nero D’Avola with Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grown around the town of Pachino near the southern tip of Sicily, and which is also where those delicious tomatoes we just ate come from.

From Ortigia you can easily visit the baroque town triangle of Noto, Modica and Ragusa, each of which is ‘well worth the detour’ as Michelin might say, and the Vendicari Nature Reserve coastal wetland and bird sanctuary down the south coast near Pachino – which is a stunning landscape and highly recommended. But bring water, good walking shoes, and binoculars if you have them, to better view the flamingos.

Anchored by Siracusa, Sicily’s southeast has something for everyone, from baroque architectural gems and sublime urban piazzas to neolithic ruins and ancient Greek temples, Nero d’Avola wines and tuna steaks, coastal hikes beside turquoise seas and flocks of flamingos. For any visitor to Sicily, this is a must-see part of the island.