Warm sunshine, ritual-filled pageants and parades and some great seasonal foodie treats all make Sicily an excellent destination for an Easter getaway in the sun. Shop windows are filled with icing-covered marzipan lambs and fruit-shaped marzipan ‘pasta reale’ confectionery, while on the streets, lengthy processions provide real-time drama.

From city centre apartments to beachfront villas, Wish Sicily offers a large collection of holiday villas and apartments in Sicily.

City centre spectacle

In addition to being famous for its extraordinary spicy chocolate, the south eastern town of Modica is home to the spectacular ‘Madonna Vasa Vasa’ procession on Easter Sunday.

Stay at the Hortus Suites, a stylish three-bedroom property with a private garden with plunge pool and a terrace overlooking Modica’s San Giorgio Cathedral, one of Sicily’s finest examples of baroque architecture. Inside the villa, original huge brick arches sit alongside contemporary design with each of the three gorgeous bedrooms featuring its own special highlight, whether a vast circular bed, lava stone bath or fireplace. Easter prices start at £246 per night (sleeps 4).

Where’s hot?  

April is the perfect month for getting to know Sicily beyond the beach. In the south east of the island, flit between exploring the Greek, Byzantine, Norman and Baroque influenced architecture on Syracuse’s tiny island of Ortygia and enjoying the remarkable land and seascapes at the Vendicari and Plemmirio nature reserves.

Stay on the outskirts of Syracuse at La Prora al Plemmirio, a four-bedroom villa with huge sweeping terraces, an infinity pool with sea views and garden steps that lead straight down to the turquoise sea of the Plemmirio marine reserve. Prices in April start at £4156 per week (sleeps 8).

Budget break

On the west of the island, the Mysteries of Trapani have taken place every Good Friday for more than four hundred years. Featuring a two-mile procession of thousands of people, the twenty ‘Mysteries’ are carried on shoulders around the streets of the city in one of the island’s most spectacular events.

Choose from a selection of properties at nearby Scopello, a fishing village near the Zingaro nature reserve in western Sicily, including several which represent excellent value for money. The two-bedroom bright, contemporary Villa delle Stelle is perfect for a family, with a small pool and garden, and views across olive groves to the sea. Prices in April start at £769 (sleeps 6).