The Pleasure Of Sicily In Summer, Shot By Photographer Daniel Farò

“It was a lovely time spent in my motherland through the lens of a tourist,” he tells us, “reminding me of all the beauty that Sicily has to give.” After having lived for 19 years in Sicily, the photographer is now based in Berlin, but wound up “back where it all started” for a holiday with close friends. “As my young tradition with friends dictates, each summer we travel to a different holiday destination,” he explains. This year, the chosen location was the Mediterranean island where he grew up, “a place I know so well but yet seems so distant and no longer part of my world.”

Sicily is a land of contrasting beauty, located south of the Italian Peninsula—and though historically and culturally tied to Italy, the island is one of its five autonomous regions. Sicily’s landscapes are characterized by the juxtaposition of turquoise oceans, the smoking volcano of Mount Etna, and the dramatic mountain scenery with its rapidly fluctuating weather patterns. “Warm afternoons can quickly turn into heavy thunderstorms, to then reveal glorious sunsets,” explains Farò. Not dissimilarly, “the ever-present aroma of sweet fruits and sizzling pots can be replaced by the gas of dented cars, only to go back moments later to the wafting smell of fragrant dishes served on the dinner table.”

Farò’s journey began on the eastern side of the Island, “at my parent’s place, on the feet of the benevolent giant as the locals call it: Mount Etna.” The omnipresent active volcano with its smoking top offers an other-wordly moonlike landscape, with a changing color palette that ranges from deep reds to fields of black—particularly when lava pours from its crater. Farò continued south to unwind on the beautiful beaches of Noto and Calamosche, “where we spent hours lazily broiling under the sun, and cooling off in the salty water.” From there, the photographer and his friends traveled to the city of Agrigento, continuing west to the Scala dei Turchi. “During sunset, a white cliff formation rich in limestone turns all shades of gold; surrounded by the wavy blue sea it was a perfect visual moment.” The group ended their time exactly as they should, “around a set table full of Sicilian delicacies and wine.”