I first saw Sicily in 1964 from an upper deck of an elderly Greek ocean liner sailing between Greece and New York. In those days, tourism was not even a consideration in Sicily, so our sole purpose in briefly docking was to take on dozens of excited young men and women traveling third class with battered suitcases and boxes of worldly goods. They were immigrating to the United States to follow the American dream. In 1998, I set foot on Sicilian soil during another cruise ship excursion. I was smitten by my day exploring even a few parts of this three-cornered island, and vowed to return for a much longer visit. In the summer of 2014, 50 years to the month after my first teenage glimpse of Sicily, I flew to Palermo for a three-week sampling of all things Sicilian.

A glance at a map of the Mediterranean Sea immediately reveals what a strategic island Sicily is with its 600 miles of deeplycrenelated coastline dominating the narrow strait between Europe and North Africa. It has been over-run by countless foreign rulers and held by many empires in the past 2,800 years from Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans to Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs, and Norman crusaders. Still later, the Spanish, French and Italians have left their architectural mark as well as cultural and cuisine influences.

Sicilian cuisine is delicious and distinctive, related only in part to its culinary cousin on the Italian mainland. It shows clear elements of Greek, Spanish and Arab influences during extended periods of rule. Norman crusaders occupying the island in the early Medieval period embedded a fondness for dishes with lots of meat, and Arab rule in the 10th and 11th Centuries introduced apricots, sugar, citrus, sweet melons, rice, many spices and pine nuts. The Spanish added New World influences like cocoa, maize, peppers, turkey and tomatoes. Sicily is a culinary mélange worth sampling!

The volcanic soil and climate in Sicily are ideal for growing grapes: a wine-making tradition has flourished since the Greeks set up their first colonies on the island. Today, all provinces of the island produce wine that sells into the European wine market and – to my great surprise – even into the liquor stores of my home province of British Columbia where four Sicilian wines are very popular.

At about 11,000 feet, Mount Etna is Europe’s highest and most active volcano, last blowing its top and re-arranging its landscape in October 2013. Meanwhile, this widely-sprawling volcano almost continually offers less dramatic lava fountains, flows and ash emissions on some part of the mountain. Viewed from a distance, it usually breathes a white cloud by day and creates a decorative ribbon of lava by night.

Despite this volatility, Mt. Etna is an incredibly popular destination, open daily throughout the year, when not erupting in a life-threatening manner. In the 6,000-foothigh vehicle parking area, there are eateries, shops and guiding services. Visitors have two ways to travel higher on the mountain: either on foot or by cable car plus a 4x4 bus taking visitors to the 9,000-foot level. The hiking option can be a physical challenge due to the altitude and a bit monotonous in terms of landscape, while the cable car option offers the best way to see some of Mt. Etna’s numerous craters.

A particular favorite of cruise ship visitors is Taormina (population 11,000) with its complex of cobbled streets perched hundreds of feet above the Ionian Sea. It has been a strategic town site since Greek settlement of the island around 700 B.C. Today, the Greek theater is one of the most celebrated ruins in Sicily because of its fine state of preservation and remarkable location overlooking Mt. Etna.

Street-strolling is a popular pastime in Taormina with many historic churches, lively bars, fine restaurants, and antique shops to serve as temptation. It can be very crowded during the hot summer season, a condition to be remedied by at least one gelato (Italian ice cream) and by a trip on the aerial tramway down to the beach to experience a different perspective on this charming town while wading in the sea.

Sicily currently hosts a remarkable six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, most recently Mt. Etna, recognized as a natural WHS in 2013. In addition, there are four more sites that the UNESCO committee is considering, all of which underscores the richness of experience for travelers visiting this island. The still-small cities of Palermo, Messina, Catania, and Syracuse (collectively totaling only 1.3 million people out of a five million island population) have long been influential centers of learning and major contributors to all the arts in Europe. Today their old city centers are architectural gems with gorgeously decorated churches, museums and galleries, and outdoor cafés with local street life to observe over a strong cup of espresso.

Despite its strategically-valuable location and legions of arrivals on its shores through the millennia, modern-day Sicily remains new territory for most 21st century travelers to discover. While it is by no means a tourist island dependent on a tourist economy, Sicily is investing heavily in the hospitality industry with a focus on its natural and historical heritage, not on attracting massive numbers of tourists.

For the independent traveler, the island’s highway system is excellent, thanks to some generous funding from the European Union, though back roads are predictably narrow, bumpy and poorly signed. For visitors preferring a small-group travel experience, international tour operators are creating theme tours around archaeology, wine tasting and Sicilian cooking classes, or for the physically active, there are walking and cycling tours. All tours are snapped up quickly, warning Sicilians to be on the alert for a whole new wave of foreign arrivals