The beating heart of the Val di Noto is–by no surprise–Noto. The Baroque city, the epicentre of the valley, emerges from the scorched landscape of southern Sicily like a mirage. The contours of its ramparts reflect the light of the brilliant sun and refracts it off the honey-hued stone typical of the area. This is how I remember my first visit to Noto on a midsummer’s afternoon that had topped all temperature records.

Cruising down the coastline from Catania, across a landscape that looked like the surface of Mars, I resisted the urge to stop every few minutes for the street vendors selling watermelons the size of babies. I pulled up to Noto very much in need of an escape from the daily grind, and I found exactly the feeling I was looking for all over the valley, a region that, very much off the tourist beaten path, still feels led by the locals.