The coast below Etna is not a strip of sand: it is black rock the lava left when it reached the water, and coves you get to on foot. North of Catania the shore turns into the sea stacks of Aci Trezza; further up it becomes the cliffs under Taormina. The sand beaches are south, wide and shallow, and they are a different holiday altogether.
Swimming off the lava is the local way: no umbrella rows, water you can see the bottom of, and rock that is warm at seven in the evening.
Boats leave all along this coast for the caves and the stacks — an hour out, and you see the volcano from the water.
August is the island’s own holiday: everything is fuller, later and louder. June and September are the same sea with fewer people.
The catalogue is open but still being filled, one business at a time, by hand. If you run something around Etna, this is the moment to be among the first.