Sicily

Sicily (Italian: Sicilia, pronounced [siˈtʃiːlja] ^ⓘ; Sicilian: Sicilia, [sɪˈ(t)ʃiːlja] ^ⓘ) is the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy. It is one of the five Italian autonomous regions and is officially referred to as Regione Siciliana. The island has 4.8 million inhabitants. Its capital city is Palermo. It is named after the Sicels, who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age. Sicily has a rich and unique culture in arts, music, literature, cuisine, and architecture.

Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe; it is separated from Calabria by the Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and is one of the most active in the world, currently 3,357 m (11,014 ft) high. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate.

The earliest archaeological record of human activity on the island is from around 14,000 BC. By around 750 BC, Sicily had three Phoenician and a dozen Greek colonies along its coasts, becoming one of the centers of Magna Graecia. The Sicilian Wars of 580–265 BC were fought between the Carthaginians and Greeks, and the Punic Wars of 264–146 BC were fought between Rome and Carthage. The Roman province of Sicilia ended with the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. Sicily was ruled during the Early Middle Ages by the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantine Empire, and the Emirate of Sicily.

The Norman conquest of southern Italy led to the creation of the County of Sicily in 1071, that was succeeded by Kingdom of Sicily, a state that existed from 1130 until 1816 under various dynasties,^[6][7] and in 1816 it was unified with the Kingdom of Naples into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. From the 1282 Sicilian Vespers until the 1860 Expedition of the Thousand, Sicily was ruled by Aragon and then Spain, either in personal union with the crown or by a cadet branch, with the exception of a period of Savoy and then Habsburg rule in 1713–1735.

The island became part of the newly unified Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, an invasion led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, and a plebiscite. Sicily was given special status as an autonomous administrative division on 15 May 1946, 18 days before the 1946 Italian institutional referendum.

Geography

Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria.

To the north-east, it is separated from

The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex.

The three volcanoes of

The autonomous region also includes several neighbouring islands: the Aegadian Islands, the Aeolian Islands, Pantelleria and Lampedusa.

Mountains

The mountains of Sicily form a significant part of the island's diverse landscape, with Mount Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes, being the highest and most notable peak. Other important mountain ranges include the Nebrodi, Madonie and Peloritani mountains ranges.

Five tallest mountains of Sicily:

Rivers

Several rivers drain the island, most of which flow through the central area and enter the sea at the south of the island. The Salso flows through parts of Enna and Caltanissetta before entering the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Licata. To the east, the Alcantara flows through the province of Messina and enters the sea at Giardini Naxos, and the Simeto, which flows into the Ionian Sea south of Catania. Other important rivers on the island are the Belice and Platani in the southwest.

Climate

Sicily has for the most part a typical Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with mild and wet winters and hot, dry summers with changeable intermediate seasons. On the coasts, especially in the southwest, the climate is affected by the African currents and summers can be hot.

Snow falls above 900 metres, but it can fall in the hills. The interior mountains, especially Nebrodi, Madonie, and Etna, enjoy a mountain climate, with heavy snowfalls during winter. The summit of Mount Etna is usually snow-capped from October to May.

In the summer, the sirocco – the wind from the Sahara – can be felt. Rainfall is scarce, and in some provinces a water crisis can occur.

According to the Regional Agency for Waste and Water, on 10 August 1999, the weather station of Catenanuova (EN) recorded an unofficial maximum temperature of 48.5 °C (119 °F).^[16] On 11 August 2021, a new highest temperature record for Europe with a reading of 48.8 °C (119.8 °F) was set near the city of Syracuse.^[17] Total precipitation is highly variable, generally increasing with elevation. In general, the southern and southeast coast receives the least rainfall (less than 50 cm (20 in)), and the northern and northeastern highlands the most (over 100 cm (39 in)).

Flora and fauna

Sicily is an often-quoted example of man-made deforestation, which has occurred since Roman times when the island was turned into an agricultural region.^[11] This gradually dried the climate, leading to a decline in rainfall and the drying of rivers. The central and southwest provinces are practically devoid of forest.^[18] In Northern Sicily, there are three important forests; near Mount Etna, in the Nebrodi Mountains and in the Bosco della Ficuzza Natural Reserve near Palermo. The Nebrodi Mountains Regional Park, established on 4 August 1993 and covering 86,000 hectares (210,000 acres), is the largest protected natural area of Sicily; it contains the largest forest in Sicily, the Caronia. The Hundred Horse Chestnut (Castagno dei Cento Cavalli), in Sant'Alfio, on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna, is the largest and oldest known chestnut tree in the world at 2,000–4,000 years old.^[19]

Sicily has a wide variety of fauna. Species include the

The Riserva naturale dello Zingaro (Zingaro Natural Reserve) is one of the best examples of unspoiled coastal wilderness in Sicily.^[24]

The name Sicilia was given to the Roman province in 241 BC. It is named after the Sicels, who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age.

The ancient name of the island is Trinacria (Greek

Humans first colonized Sicily towards the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 16,000 years ago, by people associated with the Epigravettian culture.^[27]

Discoveries of dolmens on the island (dating to the second half of the third millennium BC) seem to offer new insights into the culture of primitive Sicily.^[28] The impact of at least two influences is clear: the European one coming from the Northwest, and the Mediterranean influence of an eastern heritage.^[29]

Antiquity

The original classical-era inhabitants of Sicily comprised three defined groups of the ancient peoples of Italy: the Sicani, the Elymians and the Sicels. The most prominent and by far the earliest of these were the Sicani, who (Thucydides writes) arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia).^[30][31] Some modern scholars, however, suggest classifying the Sicani as possibly an Illyrian tribe.^[32] Important historical evidence has been discovered in the form of cave drawings by the Sicani, dated from the end of the Pleistocene epoch around 8000 BC.^[33] The Elymians, thought to have come from the area of the Aegean Sea, became the next tribe to join the Sicanians on Sicily.^[34]

No evidence survives of warring between tribes, but the Sicanians moved eastwards when the Elymians settled in the northwest corner of the island. The

Athenians who set out on the Sicilian Expedition (415–413 BC) during the Peloponnesian War. Syracuse gained Sparta and Corinth as allies and, as a result, defeated the Athenian expedition. The victors destroyed the Athenian army and their ships, selling most of the survivors into slavery.^[39]

In the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), the Carthaginians attempted to recapture Sicily. Some of the Greek cities on the island sided with the Carthaginians. Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse, helped the Carthaginians; Roman troops killed him after they invaded Syracuse in 213 BC.^[42] The Carthaginian attempt failed, and Rome became more unrelenting in its annihilation of the invaders; Roman consul M. Valerian told the Roman Senate in 210 BC that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily".^[43]

As the Roman Republic's

After taking areas occupied by the Vandals in North Africa, Justinian I retook Italy as an ambitious attempt to recover the lost provinces in the West. The re-conquests marked an end to over 150 years of accommodationist policies with tribal invaders. His first target was Sicily (known as the Gothic War (535–554) began between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire). His general Belisarius was assigned the task.^[52] Sicily was used as a base for the Byzantines to conquer the rest of Italy, with Naples, Rome, and Milan. It took five years before the Ostrogoth capital Ravenna fell in 540.^[53] However, the new Ostrogoth king Totila counterattacked, moving down the Italian peninsula, plundering and conquering Sicily in 550. Totila was defeated and killed in the Battle of Taginae by Byzantine general Narses in 552 but Italy was in ruins.^[53]

At the time of the reconquest Greek was still the predominant language spoken on the island. Sicily was invaded by the

The Arabs initiated land reforms, which increased productivity and encouraged the growth of smallholdings, undermining the dominance of the latifundia. The Arabs further improved irrigation systems. The language spoken in Sicily under Arab rule was Siculo-Arabic and Arabic influence is present in some Sicilian words today. Although long extinct in Sicily, the language has developed into what is now the Maltese language on the islands of Malta today.^[60]

A description of Palermo was given by Ibn Hawqal, an Arab merchant who visited Sicily in 950. A walled suburb, called the Al-Kasr (the palace), is the centre of Palermo to this day, with the great Friday mosque on the site of the later Roman cathedral. The suburb of al-Khalisa (modern Kalsa) contained the Sultan's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices, and a private prison. Ibn Hawqal estimated there were 7,000 butchers trading in 150 shops. During Muslim rule agricultural products such as oranges, lemons, pistachios and sugarcane were brought to Sicily.^[46] Western Sicily was overwhelmingly Muslim, and contained large plantations run by slave labor, often producing sugar.^[59] Around 1050, the western half of Sicily was ethnically and culturally distinct from central and eastern Sicily. During this time, there was also a small Jewish presence in Sicily, evidence seen in the catacombs discovered on the island^[61][62]

Palermo was initially ruled by the

In 1038, seventy years after losing their last cities in Sicily, the Byzantines under the Greek general

The Norman Hauteville family, descendants of Vikings, appreciated and admired the rich and layered culture in which they now found themselves. They also introduced their own culture, customs, and politics in the region. Many Normans in Sicily adopted the habits and comportment of Muslim rulers and their Byzantine subjects in dress, language, literature, even to the extent of having palace eunuchs and, according to some accounts, a harem.^[65][66]

While Roger I died in 1101, his wife

Roger II appointed the powerful Greek George of Antioch to be his "emir of emirs" and continued the syncretism of his father. During this period, the Kingdom of Sicily was prosperous and politically powerful, becoming one of the wealthiest states in all of Europe—even wealthier than the Kingdom of England.^[68]

The court of Roger II became the most luminous centre of culture in the Mediterranean, both from Europe and the Middle East, like the multi-ethnic Caliphate of Córdoba, then only just eclipsed. This attracted scholars, scientists, poets, artists, and artisans of all kinds. Laws were issued in the language of the community to whom they were addressed in Norman Sicily, at the time when the culture was still heavily Arab and Greek.^[69][70] Governance was by rule of law which promoted justice. Muslims, Jews, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards, and Normans worked together fairly amicably. During this time many extraordinary buildings were constructed.^[69]

However this situation changed as the Normans imported immigrants from

After a century, the Norman

Strong opposition to French officialdom due to mistreatment and taxation saw the local peoples of Sicily rise up, leading in 1282 to an

In October 1347, in Messina, Sicily, the Black Death first arrived in Europe.^[74]

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, waves of

The onset of the

This period was also characterized by the first contact between the

Italian army were often involved in fights against the mafia members, but their efforts were frequently useless because of the secret cooperation between the mafia and local government and also because of the weakness of the Italian judicial system.^[87]

20th and 21st centuries

shrapnel

in Sicily on 9 August 1943.

In the 1920s, the

25 July crisis; in general, the Allied victors were warmly embraced by Sicily.^[88]

Italy

unemployment rate fell from about 23% to 11%.^[92][93]

The Cosa Nostra has traditionally been the most powerful group in Sicily, especially around Palermo.[94] A police investigation in summer 2019 also confirmed strong links between the Palermo area Sicilian Mafia and American organized crime, particularly the Gambino crime family.^[95] According to La Repubblica, "Off they go, through the streets of Passo di Rigano, Boccadifalco, Torretta and at the same time, Brooklyn, Staten Island, [and] New Jersey. Because from Sicily to the US, the old mafia has returned".^[96]

Demographics

Main article: Sicilians

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1861	2,409,000	—
1871	2,590,000	+7.5%
1881	2,933,000	+13.2%
1901	3,568,000	+21.7%
1911	3,812,000	+6.8%
1921	4,223,000	+10.8%
1931	3,906,000	−7.5%
1936	4,000,000	+2.4%
1951	4,486,749	+12.2%
1961	4,721,001	+5.2%
1971	4,680,715	−0.9%
1981	4,906,878	+4.8%
1991	4,966,386	+1.2%
2001	4,968,991	+0.1%
2011	5,002,904	+0.7%
2021	4,833,329	−3.4%
Source: ISTAT

About five million people live in Sicily, making it the

ISTAT figures from 2017,^[97] show around 175,000 immigrants out of the total 5,029,615 population;^[98] Romanians with more than 50,000 make up the most immigrants, followed by Tunisians, Moroccans, Sri Lankans, Albanians, and others mostly from Eastern Europe.^{[failed verification]} As of 31 December 2020, there were 186,195 foreigners resident in the region.^[99]

As in the rest of Italy, the official language is Italian and the primary religion is

Roman Catholicism.^[100][101]

Emigration

See also: Sicilian Americans

Sicilian emigration started shortly after the

economic emigration. Most of the assets of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies's former national bank, Banco delle Due Sicilie, were transferred to Piedmont.^[103] During the first decades of c, a rising number of southern Italian manufactories were driven into ruin due to high taxation imposed by the central government.^{[citation needed}

]

The aforementioned factors, along with a failed land reform, resulted in a never-before-seen wave of Sicilians emigrating, first to the United States between the 1880s and the 1920s, later to Northern Italy, and from the 1960s onwards also to Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, as well as Australia and South America.

Today, Sicily is the Italian region with the highest number of expatriates: as of 2017, 750,000 Sicilians, 14.4% of the island's population, lived abroad.^[104] For lack of employment, every year many Sicilians, especially young graduates, still leave the island to seek jobs abroad.^[105] Today, an estimated 10 million people of Sicilian origins live around the world.

Largest cities

See also:

List of communes of Sicily

These are the ten largest cities of Sicily:^[106]

Rank	Name	Pop. (2017)	Area (km2)	Pop. per km2
1	Palermo	668,405	159	4,207
2	Catania	311,620	181	1,723
3	Messina	234,293	212	1,107
4	Syracuse	121,605	204	596
5	Marsala	82,802	242	343
6	Gela	74,858	277	270
7	Ragusa	73,638	442	166
8	Trapani	67,923	272	250
9	Vittoria	64,212	181	354
10	Caltanissetta	62,317	416	150

Religion

See also: Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, History of the Jews in Sicily, and History of Islam in southern Italy

As in most Italian regions,

Byzantine Catholics which has a mixed congregation of ethnic Albanians; it is operated by the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. Most people still attend church weekly or at least for religious festivals, and many people get married in churches. There was a wide presence of Jews in Sicily for at least 1,400 years and possibly for more than 2,000 years. Some scholars believe that the Sicilian Jewry are partial ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews.^[107] However, much of the Jewish community faded away when they were expelled from the island in 1492. Islam was present during the Emirate of Sicily, although Muslims were also expelled. Today, mostly due to immigration to the island, there are also several religious minorities, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. There are also a some Evangelical Christians who live on the island. As of 2020, there are approximately 4,989,921 Roman Catholics in Sicily constituting about 99.2% of the island's population. Additionally there are also about 23,120 members of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church also living in Sicily constituting roughly 0.5% of the population.^[108]

Politics

Main article: Politics of Sicily

The politics of Sicily takes place in a framework of a

Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The capital of Sicily is Palermo

.

Traditionally, Sicily votes for centre-right parties during elections.

2012. Sicily is now governed by a centre-right coalition. Renato Schifani

is the current President and has served since 2022.

Administrative divisions

Administratively, Sicily is divided into nine provinces, each with a capital city of the same name as the province. Small surrounding islands are also part of various Sicilian provinces: the

Pelagian Islands

(Agrigento).

Province	Area (km2)	Population[110]	Density (Pop. per km2)	Number of communes
Agrigento	3,042	453,594	149.1	43
Caltanissetta	2,128	271,168	127.4	22
Catania	3,552	1,090,620	307.0	58
Enna	2,562	172,159	67.2	20
Messina	3,247	652,742	201.0	108
Palermo	4,992	1,249,744	250.3	82
Ragusa	1,614	318,980	197.6	12
Siracusa	2,109	403,559	191.3	21
Trapani	2,460	436,240	177.3	24

Economy

See also: Economy of Italy

Thanks to regular growth in recent years, Sicily is the eighth largest regional economy of Italy in terms of total GDP (see

service industry has become more important due to the opening of several shopping malls and some modest growth in financial and telecommunication activities.^[113] Tourism is an important source of income for the island, which attracts visitors due to its rich natural and historical heritage. Today Sicily is investing a large amount of money into the development of its hospitality industry, to attract even more tourism.^[114] However, Sicily continues to have a GDP per capita below the Italian average, and higher unemployment than the rest of Italy.^[115]

Agriculture

Sicily has long been noted for its fertile soil, which is the result of past volcanic eruptions. The local agriculture is also helped by the pleasant climate of the island. The main agricultural products are wheat,

Ragusa is noted for its honey (Miele Ibleo) and chocolate (Cioccolato di Modica IGP) products.^{[116][117][118][119][120]}

Sicily is the third largest wine producer in Italy, after

Emilia Romagna (and Italy is the world's largest wine producer).^[121] The region is known mainly for fortified Marsala wines. In recent decades the wine industry has improved, new winemakers are experimenting with less-well-known native varieties, and Sicilian wines have become better known.^[122] The best known local variety is Nero d'Avola named after Avola, a town not far from Syracuse. Other important native varieties are: Nerello Mascalese, used to make the Etna Rosso DOC wine; Frappato, a component of the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG wine; Moscato di Pantelleria (also known as Zibibbo), which is used to make different Pantelleria wines; Malvasia di Lipari, used for the Malvasia di Lipari DOC wine; and Catarratto, mostly used to make a white wine, Alcamo DOC. Furthermore, in Sicily, high-quality wines are also produced using non-native varieties like Syrah, Chardonnay and Merlot.^[123]

Sicily is also known for its liqueurs, such as Amaro Averna, produced in Caltanissetta, and the local limoncello.

Fishing is another fundamental resource for Sicily. It has important tuna, sardine, swordfish and European anchovy fisheries. Mazara del Vallo is the largest fishing centre in Sicily and one of the most important in Italy.^[124]

Industry and manufacturing

Ragusa

Improvements in Sicily's road system have helped to promote industrial development. The region has three important industrial districts:

• food industries and one of the best European electronics industry centres called Etna Valley (in honour of the best known Silicon Valley) which contains offices and factories of international companies such as STMicroelectronics and Numonyx;^[124][125]
• power stations (as the innovative Archimede combined cycle power plant);^[126]
• the latest
  food industries.^[127]

In

Ansaldo Breda, publishing and textile industries. Chemical industries are also in the Province of Messina (Milazzo) and in the Province of Caltanissetta (Gela).^[119]

There are petroleum, natural gas and

Ragusa) and massive deposits of halite in Central Sicily.^[128] The Province of Trapani is one of the largest sea salt producers in Italy.^[129]

Statistics

GDP growth

Sicily's GDP (nominal and per capita) growth between 2000 and 2008 was as follows:[130]^[131]

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2008
Gross Domestic Product (Millions of Euros)	67,204	70,530	72,855	75,085	77,327	80,358	82,938	88,328
GDP (PPP) per capita (Euro)	13,479	14,185	14,662	15,053	15,440	16,023	16,531	17,533

Economic sectors

Sectors of the Sicilian economy in 2006:

Economic activity	GDP € millions	% sector (Sicily)	% sector (Italy)
Agriculture, farming, fishing	2,923.3	3.52%	1.84%
Industry	7,712.9	9.30%	18.30%
Constructions	4,582.1	5.52%	5.41%
Commerce, hotels and restaurants, transport, services and (tele)communications	15,159.7	18.28%	20.54%
Financial activity and real estate	17,656.1	21.29%	24.17%
Other economic activities	24,011.5	28.95%	18.97%
VAT and other forms of taxes	10,893.1	13.13%	10.76%
GDP of Sicily	82,938.6

Unemployment rate

The unemployment rate was 21.5% in 2018 and was one of the highest in Italy and Europe.^[132][133]

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Unemployment rate	13.4%	12.9%	13.7%	13.8%	14.6%	14.3%	18.4%	21.0%	22.2%	21.4%	22.1%	21.5%	21.5%

Transport

Roads

Highways have been built and expanded in the last four decades. The most prominent Sicilian roads are the motorways (known as autostrade) in the north of the island. Much of the motorway network is elevated on pillars due to the island's mountainous terrain.

Ragusa, Gela and Agrigento

).

Sign	Motorway	Length	Toll	Services
	A18 Messina-Catania	76 km (47 mi)	Yes	Yes
	RA15 Catania's Bypass (West)	24 km (15 mi)	Free	Yes
	Motorway Catania-Siracusa	25 km (16 mi)	Free	No
	A18 Siracusa-Rosolini	40 km (25 mi)	Free	No
	A19 Palermo-Catania	199 km (124 mi)	Free	Yes
	A20 Palermo-Messina	181 km (112 mi)	Yes	Yes
	A29 Palermo-Mazara del Vallo	119 km (74 mi)	Free	No
	A29dir Alcamo-Trapani/Marsala	38 km (24 mi) and 44 km (27 mi)	Free	No

Railways

Palermo International Airport

The first railway in Sicily was opened in 1863 (Palermo-Bagheria) and today all of the Sicilian provinces are served by a network of railway services, linking to most major cities and towns; this service is operated by

ferries which cross the Strait.^[138]

In

metropolitana di Catania); in Palermo the national railway operator Trenitalia operates a commuter rail (Palermo metropolitan railway service), the Sicilian Capital is also served by 4 AMAT (Comunal Public Transport Operator) tramlines; Messina is served by a tramline

.

Airports

Main article: List of airports in Sicily

Sicily has several airports that serve numerous Italian and European destinations and some extra-European.

• Catania-Fontanarossa Airport
  , located on the east coast, is the busiest on the island (and one of the busiest in all of Italy).
• Palermo International Airport
  , which is also a substantially large airport with many national and international flights.
• Trapani-Birgi Airport, a military-civil joint-use airport (third for traffic on the island). Recently the airport has seen an increase in traffic thanks to a low-cost carrier
  .
• Comiso-Ragusa Airport, has recently been refurbished and re-converted from military use to a civil airport. It was opened to commercial traffic and general aviation on 30 May 2013.
• police helicopters
  .
• NAS Sigonella Airport, it is an Italian Air Force and US Navy installation.
• Lampedusa Airport.
• Pantelleria Airport.

Ports

By sea, Sicily is served by several ferry routes and cargo ports, and in all major cities, cruise ships dock on a regular basis.

• Mainland Italy: Ports connecting to the mainland are Messina (route to Villa San Giovanni and Salerno), the busiest passenger port in Italy, Palermo (routes to Genoa, Civitavecchia and Naples) and Catania (route to Naples).
• Sicily's small surrounding islands: The port of Milazzo serves the Aeolian Islands, the ports of Trapani and Marsala the Aegadian Islands and the port of Porto Empedocle the Pelagie Islands. From Palermo there is a service to the island of Ustica and to Sardinia.
• International connections: From Palermo and Trapani there are weekly services to Tunisia and there is also a daily service between Malta and Pozzallo.^[139][140]
• Commercial and cargo ports: The port of Augusta is the fifth-largest cargo port in Italy and handles tonnes of goods. Other major cargo ports are Palermo, Catania, Trapani, Pozzallo and Termini Imerese.
• Touristic ports: Several ports along the Sicilian coast are in the service of private boats that need to moor on the island. The main ports for this traffic are in Marina di Ragusa, Riposto, Portorosa, Syracuse, Cefalù and Sciacca. In Sicily, Palermo is also a major centre for boat rental, with or without crew, in the Mediterranean.
• Fishing ports: Like all islands, Sicily also has many fishing ports. The most important is in
  Castellamare del Golfo, Licata, Scoglitti and Portopalo di Capo Passero
  .

Planned bridge

Main article: Strait of Messina Bridge

Plans for a bridge linking Sicily to the mainland have been discussed since 1865. Throughout the last decade, plans were developed for a road and rail link to the mainland via what would be the world's longest suspension bridge, the Strait of Messina Bridge. Planning for the project has experienced several false starts over the past few decades. On 6 March 2009, Silvio Berlusconi's government declared that the construction works for the Messina Bridge would begin on 23 December 2009, and announced a pledge of €1.3 billion as a contribution to the bridge's total cost, estimated at €6.1 billion.^[141] The plan has been criticized by environmental associations and some local Sicilians and Calabrians, concerned with its environmental impact, economic sustainability and even possible infiltrations by organized crime.^[142][143]

Tourism

Sicily's sunny, dry climate, scenery, cuisine, history, and architecture attract many tourists from the rest of Italy and abroad. The tourist season peaks in the summer months, although people visit the island all year round. Mount Etna, the beaches, the archaeological sites, and major cities such as Palermo, Catania, Syracuse and Ragusa are the favourite tourist destinations, but the old town of Taormina and the neighbouring seaside resort of Giardini Naxos draw visitors from all over the world, as do the Aeolian Islands, Erice, Terrasini, Castellammare del Golfo, Cefalù, Agrigento, the Pelagie Islands and Capo d'Orlando. The last features some of the best-preserved temples of the ancient Greek period. Many Mediterranean cruise ships stop in Sicily, and many wine tourists also visit the island.

Some scenes of several Hollywood and Cinecittà films were shot in Sicily. This increased the attraction of Sicily as a tourist destination.^[144]

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

There are seven

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

on Sicily. By the order of inscription:

• Valle dei Templi (1997) is one of the most outstanding examples of Magna Graecia art and architecture, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily as well as a national monument of Italy. The site is located in Agrigento.^[145]
• Villa Romana del Casale (1997) is a Roman villa built in the first quarter of the 4th century and located about 3 km (2 mi) outside the town of Piazza Armerina. It contains the richest, largest and most complex collection of Roman mosaics in the world.^[146]
• Aeolian Islands (2000) are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea, named after the demigod of the winds Aeolus. The Aeolian Islands are a tourist destination in the summer, and attract up to 200,000 visitors annually.^[147]
• Ragusa and Scicli
  .
• Necropolis of Pantalica (2005) is a large Necropolis in Sicily with over 5,000 tombs dating from the 13th to the 7th centuries BC. Syracuse is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres and architecture. They are situated in south-eastern Sicily.
• Mount Etna (2013) is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity and generated myths, legends and naturalistic observation from Greek, Celts and Roman classic and medieval times.^[149]
• Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedral churches of Cefalù and Monreale; includes a series of nine civil and religious structures dating from the era of the Norman kingdom of Sicily (1130–1194)^[150]

Tentative UNESCO World Heritage sites

• Taormina and Isola Bella;^[151]
• Motya and Libeo Island: The Phoenician-Punic Civilisation in Italy;^[152]
• Scala dei Turchi;^[153]
• Strait of Messina.^[154]

Archeological sites

Because many different cultures settled, dominated or invaded the island, Sicily has a huge variety of

archaeological sites. Also, some of the most notable and best preserved temples and other structures of the Greek world are located in Sicily.^[155]

Here is a short list of the major archaeological sites:

• Sicels/Sicans/Elymians/Greeks:
  Pantalica
  ;
• Greeks: Syracuse, Agrigento, Segesta, Selinunte, Gela, Kamarina, Himera, Megara Hyblaea, Naxos, Heraclea Minoa;
• Phoenicians: Motya, Soluntum, Marsala, Palermo;
• Romans: Piazza Armerina, Centuripe, Taormina, Palermo;

The excavation and restoration of one of Sicily's best known archaeological sites, the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, was at the direction of the archaeologist Domenico Antonio Lo Faso Pietrasanta, Fifth Duke of Serradifalco, known in archaeological circles simply as "Serradifalco". He also oversaw the restoration of ancient sites at Segesta, Selinunte, Siracusa and Taormina.

Castles

In Sicily there are hundreds of castles, the most relevant are:

Ragusa

Province	Castles	Commune
Caltanisetta	Castello Manfredonico	Mussomeli
	U Cannuni	Mazzarino
	Castelluccio di Gela	Gela
Catania	Castello Ursino	Catania
	Castello Normanno	Adrano
	Castello Normanno	Paternò
	Castello di Aci	Aci Castello
Enna	Castello di Lombardia	Enna
Messina	Forte dei Centri	Messina
	Castello di Milazzo	Milazzo
	Castello di Federico II	Montalbano Elicona
	Castello di Sant'Alessio Siculo	Sant'Alessio Siculo
	Castello di Pentefur	Savoca
	Castello di Schisò	Giardini Naxos
Palermo	Zisa, Palermo	Palermo
	Castello di Caccamo	Caccamo
	Castello di Carini	Carini
	Castello dei Ventimiglia	Castelbuono
Ragusa	Castello di Donnafugata	Ragusa
	Torre Cabrera	Pozzallo
	Castello Dei Conti	Modica
Syracuse	Castello Maniace	Syracuse
	Castello Svevo	Augusta
Trapani	Castello di Venere	Erice
	Castle of the Counts of Modica	Alcamo
	Castle of Calatubo	Alcamo

Coastal towers

The Coastal towers in Sicily (Torri costiere della Sicilia) are 218 old

watchtowers along the coast. In Sicily, the first coastal towers date back to the late Norman period. From 1360 the threat came from the south, from North Africa to Maghreb, mainly to Barbary pirates and corsairs of Barbary Coast. In 1516, the Turks settled in Algiers, and from 1520, the corsair Hayreddin Barbarossa under the command of Ottoman Empire

, operated from that harbour.

Most existing towers were built on architectural designs of the Florentine architect

Martello towers

that the British built in the UK and elsewhere in the British Empire. The decline of Mediterranean piracy caused by the Second Barbary War led to a smaller number of coastal towers built during the 19th century.^[156]

• 
  Torre-Capo-Rama (Terrasini)
• 
  Torre Normanna (Altavilla Milicia)
• 
  Torre Spalmatore (Ustica)
• 
  Torre Pozzillo (Cinisi)
• 
  Ligny Tower (Trapani)
• 
  Torre Nubia (Paceco)
• 
  Torre Manfria (Gela)
• 
  Torre Cabrera (Marina di Ragusa)
• 
  Torre Cabrera (Pozzallo) (Pozzallo)
• 
  Vignazza Tower (Giardini Naxos)

Historical villages

Sicily has many small and picturesque villages, 24 of them have been selected by I Borghi più belli d'Italia (English: The most beautiful Villages of Italy),^[157] a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest,^[158] that was founded on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities.^[159]

Culture

See also: List of museums in Sicily

To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.

— 

better source needed

]

Sicily has long been associated with the arts; many poets, writers, philosophers, intellectuals, architects and painters have roots on the island. The history of prestige in this field can be traced back to Greek philosopher Archimedes, a Syracuse native who has gone on to become renowned as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.^[161] Gorgias and Empedocles are two other highly noted early Sicilian-Greek philosophers, while the Syracusan-Greek Epicharmus is held to be the inventor of comedy.^[162][163]

Art and architecture

Baglio are traditional living structures in Western Sicily.

Ceramics

metaphysical art movement.^[165] The most noted architects are Filippo Juvarra (one of the most important figures of the Italian Baroque) and Ernesto Basile

.

Sicilian Baroque

Main article: Sicilian Baroque

The

Ragusa, Modica, Scicli and particularly Acireale contain some of Italy's best examples of Baroque architecture, carved in the local red sandstone

. Noto provides one of the best examples of the Baroque architecture brought to Sicily. The Baroque style in Sicily was largely confined to buildings erected by the church, and

palazzi built as private residences for the Sicilian aristocracy.^[166] The earliest examples of this style in Sicily lacked individuality and were typically heavy-handed pastiches of buildings seen by Sicilian visitors to Rome, Florence, and Naples

. However, even at this early stage, provincial architects had begun to incorporate certain vernacular features of Sicily's older architecture. By the middle of the 18th century, when Sicily's Baroque architecture was noticeably different from that of the mainland, it has a unique freedom of design that is difficult to characterize in words.

Music and film

See also: Music of Sicily

Palermo hosts the Teatro Massimo which is the largest opera house in Italy and the third largest in all of Europe.^[167] In

opera houses

for its acoustics. Sicily's composers vary from Vincenzo Bellini, Sigismondo d'India, Giovanni Pacini and Alessandro Scarlatti, to contemporary composers such as Salvatore Sciarrino and Silvio Amato.

Many award-winning and acclaimed films of Italian cinema have been filmed in Sicily, amongst the most noted of which are:

Divorzio all'Italiana" and "Sedotta e Abbandonata", Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso

".

Literature

See also: Italian literature and Sicilian School

The golden age of Sicilian poetry began in the early 13th century with the

Federico de Roberto, Leonardo Sciascia, Vitaliano Brancati, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Elio Vittorini, Vincenzo Consolo and Andrea Camilleri (noted for his novels and short stories with the fictional character Inspector Salvo Montalbano as protagonist). On the political side notable philosophers include Gaetano Mosca and Giovanni Gentile who wrote The Doctrine of Fascism

.

Languages

Main articles: Sicilian language, Gallo-Italic of Sicily, and Arbëresh language

Today, in Sicily, most people are bilingual and speak both

Arabic, Spanish and other languages.^[168] Varieties related to Sicilian are also spoken in Calabria and Salento.^[169] Nowadays, the use of Sicilian is limited to informal contexts (mostly in family) and in a majority of cases it is replaced by the so-called regional Italian of Sicily, a variety of Italian that is influenced by Sicilian.^[170][171] Sicilian had a significant influence on the Maltese language.^[172]

Sicilian was an early influence in the development of the first Italian standard, although its use remained confined to an intellectual elite. This was a literary language in Sicily created under the auspices of Frederick II and his court of notaries, or Magna Curia, which, headed by Giacomo da Lentini, also gave birth to the Sicilian School, widely inspired by troubadour literature. Its linguistic and poetic heritage was later assimilated into the literary Florentine dialect use by Dante Alighieri, the father of modern Italian. Dante, in his De vulgari eloquentia, claims that "In effect, this vernacular seems to deserve higher praise than the others since all the poetry written by Italians can be called Sicilian".^[173] It is in this language that appeared the first sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini himself.

Other languages are spoken in Sicily. Within the province of Palermo, four towns are home to speakers of Arbërësh varieties.^[174] Arbërësh is the name given to varieties of Albanian spoken in Italy. In the eastern part of the island, there are Gallo-Italic varieties known as Gallo-Italic of Sicily,^[175][176] which are related to the other Gallo-Italic languages spoken in most of northern Italy and in other isolated pockets of southern Italy.

Science

Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (National Institute for Astrophysics). In the Observatory of Palermo the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first and the largest asteroid to be identified Ceres (today considered a dwarf planet) on 1 January 1801;^[180] Catania has two observatories, one of which is situated on Mount Etna at 1,800 metres (5,900 feet).^[181]

combined-cycle gas facility. All the plant is owned and operated by Enel.^[182][183] The touristic town of Erice is also an important science place thanks to the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture

which embraces 123 schools from all over the world, covering all branches of science, offering courses, seminars, workshops, and annual meetings. It was founded by the physicist Antonino Zichichi in honour of another scientist of the island, Ettore Majorana known for the Majorana equation and Majorana fermions.^[184] Sicily's famous scientists include also Stanislao Cannizzaro (chemist), Giovanni Battista Hodierna and Niccolò Cacciatore (astronomers).

Education

Sicily has four universities:

• The University of Catania dates back to 1434 and it is the oldest university in Sicily. Nowadays it hosts 12 faculties and over 62,000 students and it offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Catania hosts also the Scuola Superiore, an academic institution linked to the University of Catania, aiming for excellence in education.^[185]
• The University of Palermo is the island's second-oldest university. It was officially founded in 1806, although historical records indicate that medicine and law have been taught there since the late 15th century. The Orto botanico di Palermo (Palermo botanical gardens) is home to the university's Department of Botany and is also open to visitors.
• The University of Messina, founded in 1548 by Ignatius of Loyola. It is organized in 11 Faculties.
• The
  Italian Unification
  .

Cuisine

Main articles: Sicilian cuisine and Sicilian pizza

The island has a long history of producing a variety of noted cuisines and wines, to the extent that Sicily is sometimes nicknamed God's Kitchen because of this.

sea bream, sea bass, cuttlefish, swordfish, sardines, and others.^[188]

The most well-known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich sweet dishes including

Biscotti Regina, giurgiulena, frutta martorana, cassata, pignolata, granita, cuccidati (a variety of fig cookie; also known as buccellati) and cuccìa are some notable sweet dishes.^[189]

Like the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy, pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice; for example with

lamb, goat, rabbit, and turkey, are also found in Sicily. It was the Normans and Swabians who first introduced a fondness for meat dishes to the island.^[192] Some varieties of wine are produced from vines that are relatively unique to the island, such as the Nero d'Avola made near the baroque town of Noto.^[193]

Sports

pole vaulter from Syracuse, 2003 World Champion and bronze Olympic

medalist

The most popular sport in Sicily is

Messina, which have played 29, 17 and 5 seasons in the Serie A respectively. No club from Sicily has ever won Serie A, but football is still deeply embedded in local culture and all over Sicily most towns have a representative team.^[194]

Palermo and Catania have a heated rivalry and compete in the

UEFA Cup. In the island, the most noted footballer is Salvatore Schillaci, who won the Golden Boot at the 1990 FIFA World Cup with Italy.^[194] Other noted players include Giuseppe Furino, Pietro Anastasi, Francesco Coco, Christian Riganò, and Roberto Galia.^[194] There have also been some noted managers from the island, such as Carmelo Di Bella and Franco Scoglio

.

Although football is the most popular sport in Sicily, the island also has participants in other fields.

handball, and water polo. Previously, in motorsport, Sicily held the prominent Targa Florio sports car race that took place in the Madonie Mountains, with the start-finish line in Cerda.^[195] The event was started in 1906 by Sicilian industrialist and automobile enthusiast Vincenzo Florio, and ran until it was canceled due to safety concerns in 1977.^[195]

From 28 September to 9 October 2005 Trapani was the location of Acts 8 and 9 of the Louis Vuitton Cup. This sailing race featured, among other entrants, all boats that took part in the 2007 America's Cup.

Popular culture

Each town and city has its own patron saint, and the

feast days

are marked by colourful processions through the streets with marching bands and displays of fireworks.

Sicilian religious festivals also include the presepe vivente (living nativity scene), which takes place at Christmas time. Deftly combining religion and folklore, it is a constructed mock 19th-century Sicilian village, complete with a nativity scene, and has people of all ages dressed in the costumes of the period, some impersonating the Holy Family, and others working as artisans of their particular assigned trade. It is normally concluded on Epiphany, often highlighted by the arrival of the magi on horseback.

Oral tradition plays a large role in Sicilian folklore. Many stories passed down from generation to generation involve a character named "Giufà". Anecdotes from this character's life preserve Sicilian culture as well as convey moral messages.

Sicilians also enjoy outdoor festivals, held in the local square or piazza where live music and dancing are performed on stage, and food fairs or sagre are set up in booths lining the square. These offer various local specialties, as well as typical Sicilian food. Normally these events are concluded with fireworks. A noted sagra is the Sagra del Carciofo or Artichoke Festival, which is held annually in Ramacca in April. The most important traditional event in Sicily is the carnival. Famous carnivals are in Acireale, Misterbianco, Regalbuto, Paternò, Sciacca, Termini Imerese.

marionettes used in the Opera dei Pupi

The

puppet theatres featuring hand-made marionettes of wood. The opera of the puppets and the Sicilian tradition of cantastorî (singers of tales) are rooted in the Provençal troubadour tradition in Sicily during the reign of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the first half of the 13th century. A great place to see this marionette art is the puppet theatres of Palermo. The Sicilian marionette theatre Opera dei Pupi was proclaimed in 2001 and inscribed in 2008 in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.^[196]

Today, there are only a few troupes that maintain the tradition. They often perform for tourists. However, there are no longer the great historical families of marionettists, such as the Greco of

Museo Etnografico Siciliano Giuseppe Pitrè in Palermo. Other elaborate marionettes are on display at the Museo Civico Vagliasindi in Randazzo

.

Traditional items

The Sicilian cart is an ornate, colourful style of a horse- or donkey-drawn cart native to Sicily. Sicilian woodcarver George Petralia states that horses were mostly used in the city and flat plains, while donkeys or mules were more often used in rough terrain for hauling heavy loads.^[197] The cart has two wheels and is primarily handmade out of wood with iron components.

The Sicilian

tweed. Today it is widely regarded as a definitive symbol of Sicilian heritage.^[198]

Flag and emblem

Main articles: Triskelion § Sicily, and Flag of Sicily

The Flag of Sicily, regarded as a regional icon, was first adopted in 1282, after the Sicilian Vespers of Palermo.^[199] It is characterised by the presence of the triskeles in the middle, depicting the head of Medusa and three wheat ears representing the extreme fertility of the land of Sicily. In early mythology, when Medusa was slain and beheaded by Perseus, the Medusa head was placed in the centre of Athena's shield.^[200]

Palermo and Corleone were the first two cities to found a confederation against the Angevin rule. The triskeles symbol came to be on the Sicilian flag in 1943 during World War II when Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile led an independence movement, in collaboration with the allies. Their plan was to help Sicily become independent and form a free republic. The colours, likewise introduced in the 1940s, respectively represent the cities of Palermo and Corleone. The separatist behind the movement used a yellow and red flag with the Trinacria in the centre of it. When World War II ended, Sicily was recognized as an autonomous region in the Italian Republic.

The flag became the official public flag of the Regione Siciliana in January 2000, after the passing of an apposite regional law which advocates its use on public buildings, schools and city halls along with the national

European

one.

Familiar as an ancient symbol of the region, the

Pelorus (Peloro, Tip of Faro, Messina: North-East); Pachynus (Passero, Syracuse: South); and Lilybæum (Lilibeo, Cape Boeo, Marsala: West), which form three points of a triangle.^[202]

See also

• List of islands of Italy
• List of islands in the Mediterranean
• List of people from Sicily

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Further reading

• Alio, Jacqueline (2018). Sicilian Studies: A Guide and Syllabus for Educators. New York: Trinacria Editions.
  ISBN 978-1-943-63918-2
  .
• Bonacini, Elisa (2007). Il territorio calatino nella Sicilia imperiale e tardoromana (in Italian and English). Archaeopress, Oxford, England.
  ISBN 978-1-4073-0136-5
  .
• Chaney, Edward (2000). British and American Travellers in Sicily from the eighth to the twentieth century. The Evolution of the Grand Tour. Routledge.
• Leighton, Robert (1999). Sicily before History. Duckworth, London; Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
• Mendola, Louis; Alio, Jacqueline (2013) The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy (Trinacria Editions, New York,
  ISBN 978-0-615-79694-9
  ).
• Spadi, Fabio. (2001) "The Bridge on the Strait of Messina: 'Lowering' the Right of Innocent Passage?" International and Comparative Law Quarterly 50: 411 ff.
• Vinci, Attilio L., Magica Sicilia, Campo, Alcamo (
  ISBN 978-88-943699-1-5
• Zuppardo, Emanuele - Piccolo, Salvatore: Terra Mater, Sulle Sponde del Gela greco, Betania Editions 2005. CIP-Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana "Alberto Bombace" 937.8 CDD-20. Library locations: British Library/London (UK) - University of Bristol Library (UK) - University of Manchester Library (UK) - Landsbókasafn Íslands/Reykjavík (IS) - Library of Congress/Washington D.C. - Yale University Library/New Haven (CT) - New York University Library (NY).
• "From Rome to Sicily: Plane or Train?" Expert Travel Advice, The New York Times, 7 February 2008 The New York Times.
• "Italy makes record mafia seizure". BBC News. 22 December 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
• "Sicily Mafia restoring US links". Mafia News. 29 February 2008. Archived from the original on 1 January 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
• "Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome". Getty Publications, 2013.
• To Noto: or London to Sicily in a Ford (London, 1989) by Duncan Fallowell

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sicily.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sicily.

• Geographic data related to Sicily at OpenStreetMap
• Sicilian Region — Official website (in Italian)
• The Wonders of Sicily – The Cities, Architecture, Culture, History, People
• Piccolo, Salvatore (2018). Bronze Age Sicily. World History Encyclopedia.
• Wilson, R.; Talbert, R.; Elliott, T.; Gillies, S. "Places: 462492 (Sicilia)". Pleiades. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
• Piccolo, Salvatore (2018). The Dolmens of Sicily. World History Encyclopedia.

37°30′N 14°00′E / 37.500°N 14.000°E / 37.500; 14.000