Sicily has a chequered past but is now the perfect holiday destination

THREE men in suits carrying violin cases emerge from the shadows of a Palermo side street and walk purposefully towards us.

So THIS is how it ends. Dumped in the boot of a car in long-term parking at the airport. Encased in cement and propping up some new flyover. Thrown into the sea to sleep with the fishes . . .

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Oh, hang on, they’re going past us, into the side door of the Opera House we’ve just been looking round.

Ah, they’re musicians. Not that other word beginning with M then.

If there is one thing the guidebooks are very firm on, it’s not mentioning the M word in Sicily.

Sicilians are still very touchy about the decades of Mafia corruption and violence that blighted this beautiful island.

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Not that it seems to worry the waiter at the cocktail bar in Cefalu, the pretty seaside resort on Sicily’s north coast, where we are staying.

With a wink, he asks in English if we would like a Godfather and does a passably husky Don Corleone. (For the record, it’s Scotch and amaretto and not, as you might reasonably expect, something with a lot of tomato juice.)

The locals aren’t exactly laughing at the Mob these days but it does show how much the island is trying to move on.

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And, ironically, it seems good for tourism. The gift shops are full of posters and T-shirts of Marlon Brando as the Don.

Cefalu (pronounced Cheff-a-loo) seems a long way from all that.

It’s a pretty town built in the shade of a huge cliff, La Rocca, and made up of a maze of winding cobbled streets, filled with excellent restaurants (try Le Chat Noir and Il Covo del Pirata) radiating out from a striking 12th-century Norman cathedral.

In the summer this unspoiled family- friendly town is jam-packed but when we went in the middle of October it was buzzing but not oppressively busy.

The temperature was still in the high 60s and the sea was still warm yet we pretty much had the beautiful sandy beach opposite the hotel to ourselves.

It was still warm enough to sit out in the evening too.

A meal in the lively Piazza del Duomo or on the waterfront watching the sunset is one of those “best of” holiday memories.

If you fancy stretching yourself, walk up La Rocca, where you will find the remains of an old Norman castle and a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Diana.

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It’s not for the faint-hearted but it’s worth it for the stunning views over Cefalu and along the coast to Palermo.

Sicily’s infamous capital is about 40 minutes away by train (cheap, comfortable and on time) and an ideal day trip.

Frenetic, unfriendly, seedy, splendid — Palermo is all those things and more and endlessly fascinating.

I liked it, my wife less so, and it’s very different to the cities of Italy’s north.

But there’s loads to see and do, not least to see the aforementioned opera house, the grand Teatro Massimo, which featured in the big shoot-out finale of The Godfather Part III.

Part of the appeal of Palermo is walking through some tatty area then suddenly coming across a jewel of a building.

Visit Palermo’s own striking medieval Duomo and the astonishing interiors of the Palazzo dei Normanni, the oldest palace in Europe and home to Sicily’s rulers for nearly 1,000 years.

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Then there is the Catacombe dei Cappuccini. Walk through some fairly unenticing suburbs to find this bizarre and creepy collection of mummies and skeletons, the mortal remains of Palermo’s great and good, preserved in the bowels of an old convent.

But to get the real feel of the city, visit the narrow, chaotic streets that house the Ballaro and Vucciria markets and try the food.

Centuries of invasions have given Sicily a unique cuisine that’s part Greek, North African and Asian, as well as trad Italian.

Sicilian specialities include pasta con le sarde, a mix of sardines, raisins, fennel, chilli and pine nuts; caponata, an aubergine stew; and cannoli, a hard tube of pastry filled with sweetened ricotta and cinnamon.

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Sicily is a big island. You can’t see it all in one go. But it’s worth hiring a car to go to the hill-top town of Corleone.

Yes, it’s a real place, and its fame rests on producing Sicily’s most feared and ruthless mob, the Corleonesi, and, of course, inspiring The Godfather.

The right place, then, for a museum telling the story of the brave and extremely dangerous fight against Cosa Nostra.

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Visiting it is a reminder, too, that when you’ve finished sticking cotton wool in your cheeks and saying “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” in your best Brando voice, the reality of Sicily’s past is anything but a joke.

But all that is dying out and in the 21st century, Sicily is simply a great and surprisingly cheap place for a holiday, particularly a family one.

Although obviously not THAT Family.