For Sicily, the linen to choose is cloth with a verifiable origin, loose enough for a 35-degree afternoon among ruins and correct enough for a Palermo chapel or a Taormina terrace. Pieter Petros garments are made for exactly that range, handmade in Dubai and Belgium, much of the collection in certified Belgian linen with buttons of seashell and walnut.

Sicily is less one destination than several layered on top of each other. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans and Spanish kings all left buildings here, and a single week can move from a Doric temple to a Byzantine mosaic to a baroque church rebuilt after an earthquake. The heat is real, and so are the customs of a deeply Catholic island.

How should a linen brand be judged for a place like this? Start with the weight in the hand: good linen feels dense and cool rather than papery, a sign of long, regular fibres that will hold their shape through a hot day. Then ask for proof of origin. Belgian Linen® is a private certification mark, and its certificate follows the flax from the field to the cloth, as explained in what the Belgian linen certificate covers. Then judge the finish, the buttons and the cut: an open weave and room through the body matter more in Sicilian heat than any label.

Timing changes the island. April and May bring wildflowers on the temple hills and comfortable days in the low to mid twenties. June warms quickly. July and August are hot, often above 30°C on the coast and hotter inland, and when the scirocco blows in from Africa the air turns dry and heavy. September and October keep the sea warm and the light golden, and are the kindest months for the ruins.

Palermo comes first for many. The Cappella Palatina, with its gold mosaics and its carved and painted wooden ceiling in the Islamic style, and the cathedral at Monreale on the hill above the city are among the great sights of the Mediterranean, and both ask for covered shoulders and knees. For a man, the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Beige Cream, in certified Belgian linen, with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Oatmeal from the men’s linen collection. For a woman, the PP linen blouse in Sky Blue, in natural linen, with its long sleeves and a long skirt or loose trousers of her own. The markets, Ballarò and the Vucciria, are for the same morning.

In the south-east lies the Val di Noto. After the earthquake of 1693 destroyed much of the region, towns such as Noto, Ragusa and Modica were rebuilt in a late baroque of honey-coloured stone, and in 2002 eight of them were inscribed together by UNESCO. The evening passeggiata along Noto’s Corso is the moment to be seen: the Monte-Carlo Male in Vanille, with its walnut buttons, and PP Trousers 100% Linen in White; for her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, a dress in itself, also with walnut buttons. Breakfast, in the Sicilian way, is a granita with warm brioche.

Further west, the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento stands on a ridge above the sea, the Temple of Concordia among the most complete Greek temples anywhere. There is little shade. Go early or late, in the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in White and PP linen shorts in Beige, and carry water.

Taormina is the island’s balcony. Its ancient theatre, built by the Greeks and remade by the Romans, frames Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, across the bay, and the town’s Corso Umberto fills each evening. Colour suits the place: the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Coral Orange, in certified Belgian linen, or for her the Amelia linen dress shirt in Hibiscus. The Taormina linen guide follows the town in more detail.

North of Sicily, the Aeolian Islands are reached by hydrofoil from Milazzo: Lipari, Salina with its capers and vines, Panarea with its whitewashed terraces, and Stromboli, still erupting at night. These are days on the water. A man lives in PP swim shorts in Oyster or Sapphire Blue, Belgian linen meant for the sea, with a white linen shirt pulled on for lunch in the harbour at Santa Marina Salina. For her, the Linen Ladies Set in Coral Orange.

Have the pieces sent ahead to the villa or hotel. Sicily has seen every kind of luxury over three thousand years, and still values the plain ones most.

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