In the popular imagination, Sicily sums up everything Italian, and, since the Godfather films, most of it is negative.In reality, Sicily couldn’t be more different from the rest of Italy. It isn’t so much a region as a separate culture; its heat in the hinterland is legendary and the island, the largest in the Mediterranean, is a mysterious melting pot of practically every major civilisation over three millennia. As the Prince of Salina in Lampedusa’s The Leopard ruefully reflects, it is the product of so many different cultures, none its own. Geographically, the westernmost tip is closer to Tunis than to Naples and, on a clear day, Africa is visible. Italy is still producing the largest volume of wine in the world and Sicily is the second largest wine-making region in I