Everything about Sicily totally explained
Sicily (
Italian and
Sicilian:
Sicilia) is an
autonomous region of Southern
Italy in
Europe. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest surface area with 25,708 km² and currently has five million inhabitants. It is also the largest island in the
Mediterranean Sea, though several much surrounding it are also considered part of Sicily.
Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. The area was highly regarded as part of
Magna Graecia, with
Cicero describing
Siracusa as the greatest and most beautiful city of all
Ancient Greece.
Although a region of Italy today, Sicily was once its own country as the
Kingdom of Sicily, ruled from
Palermo. The kingdom originally ruled over the island, the southern
Italian peninsula and
Malta before the
Sicilian Vespers. It later became a part of the
Two Sicilies under the
Bourbons, with the capital in
Naples rather than Sicily. Since that time the
Italian unification has taken place and Sicily is now a fully fledged part of Italy.
Sicily is considered to be highly rich in its own unique culture, especially with regard to
the arts,
cuisine,
architecture and even
language. The Sicilian economy is largely based on
agriculture (namely
orange and
lemon orchards); this same rural
countryside has attracted significant
tourism in the modern age as its natural beauty is highly regarded. Sicily also holds importance for
archeological and ancient sites such as the
Necropolis of Pantalica and the
Valley of the Temples.
History
Ancient tribes
The original inhabitants of Sicily were three defined groups of the
Ancient peoples of Italy. The most prominent and by far the earliest of which was the
Sicani, who according to
Thucydides arrived from the
Iberian Peninsula (perhaps
Catalonia). 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. The
Elymians, thought to be from the
Aegean, were the next tribe to migrate to join the Sicanians on Sicily. Although there's no evidence of any wars between the tribes, when the Elymians settled in the north-west corner of the island, the Sicanians moved across eastwards. From mainland
Italy, thought to originally have been
Ligures from
Liguria came the
Sicels in 1200 BC; forcing the Sicanians to move back across Sicily settling in the middle of the island.
Greek and Roman period
About 750 BC, the
Greeks began to
colonize Sicily, establishing many important settlements. The most important colony was
Syracuse; other significant ones were
Akragas,
Gela,
Himera,
Selinunte, and
Zancle. The native Sicani and Sicel peoples were absorbed by the
Hellenic culture with relative ease, and the area was part of
Magna Graecia along with the rest of
Southern Italy, which the Greeks had also colonized. Sicily was very fertile, and the introduction of
olives and
grape vines flourished, creating a great deal of profitable trading; a significant part of Greek culture on the island was that of
Greek religion and many temples were built across Sicily, such as the
Valley of the Temples at
Agrigento. Politics on the island was intertwined with that of Greece;
Syracuse became desired by the
Athenians, who during
Peloponnesian War set out on the
Sicilian Expedition. Syracuse gained
Sparta and
Corinth as allies, as a result the Athenian army and ships were destroyed, with most of the survivors being sold into slavery.
While Greek Syracuse controlled much of Sicily, there were a few
Carthaginian colonies in the far west of the island. When the two cultures began to clash, the
Sicilian Wars erupted. Greece began to make peace with the
Roman Republic in 262 BC and the Romans sought to
annex Sicily as its empire's first province. Rome intervened in the
First Punic War, crushing Carthage so that by 242 BC Sicily had become the first Roman province outside of the
Italian Peninsula. The
Second Punic War, in which
Archimedes was killed, saw Carthage trying to take Sicily from the Roman Empire. They failed and this time Rome was even more unrelenting in the annihilation of the invaders; during 210 BC the
Roman consul M. Valerian, told the
Roman Senate that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily".
Sicily served a level of high importance for the Romans as it acted as the empire's
granary, it was divided into two
quaestorships in the form of Syracuse to the east and
Lilybaeum to the west. Although under
Augustus some attempt was made to introduce the
Latin language to the island, Sicily was allowed to remain largely Greek in a cultural sense, rather than a complete cultural
Romanisation. When
Verres became governor of Sicily, the once prosperous and contented people were put into sharp decline, in 70 BC noted figure
Cicero condemned the misgovernment of Verres in his oration
In Verrem. The religion of
Christianity first appeared in Sicily during the years following 200 AD, between this time and 313 AD when
Constantine the Great finally lifted the prohibition, a significant number of Sicilians became
martyrs such as
Agatha,
Christina,
Lucy,
Euplius and many more. Christianity grew rapidly in Sicily during the next two centuries, the period of history where Sicily was a Roman province lasted for around 700 years in total.
Early Middle Ages
As the Roman Empire was falling apart, a
Germanic tribe known as the
Vandals took Sicily in 440 AD under the rule of their king
Geiseric. The Vandals had already invaded parts of Roman
France and
Spain, inserting themselves as an important power in western Europe. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to another
East Germanic tribe in the form of the
Goths. The
Ostrogothic conquest of Sicily (and Italy as a whole) under
Theodoric the Great began in 488; although the Goths were Germanic, Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government and allowed freedom of religion. The
Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the
Byzantine Empire. Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under general
Belisarius who was commissioned by
Eastern Emperor Justinian I. Sicily was used as a base for the Byzantines to conquer the rest of Italy, with
Naples,
Rome,
Milan and the Ostrogoth capital
Ravenna falling within five years. However, a new Ostrogoth king
Totila, drove down the Italian peninsula,
plundering and conquering Sicily in 550. Totila, in turn, was defeated and killed in the
Battle of Taginae by the Byzantine general
Narses in 552.
Byzantine Emperor
Constans II decided to move from the capital
Constantinople to
Syracuse in Sicily during 660, the following year he launched an assault from Sicily against the
Lombard Duchy of Benevento, which then occupied most of Southern Italy. The rumours that the capital of the empire was to be moved to Syracuse, along with small raids probably cost Constans his life as he was assassinated in 668. His son
Constantine IV succeeded him, a brief usurpation in Sicily by
Mezezius being quickly suppressed by the new emperor. Contemporary accounts report that the
Greek language was widely spoken on the island during this period.
In 826,
Euphemius the commander of the Byzantine fleet of Sicily forced a nun to marry him. Emperor
Michael II caught wind of the matter and ordered that general Constantine end the marriage and cut off Euphemius' nose. Euphemius rose up, killed Constantine and then occupied Syracuse; he in turn was defeated and drove out to
North Africa. He offered rule of Sicily over to
Ziyadat Allah the
Aghlabid Emir of
Tunisia in return for a place as a general and safety; an Islamic army of
Arabs,
Berbers,
Spaniards,
Cretans and
Persians was sent. The conquest was a
see-saw affair: with considerable resistance and many internal struggles, it took over a century for Byzantine Sicily to be conquered. Syracuse held for a long time,
Taormina fell in 902, and all of the island was eventually conquered by 965.
Throughout this reign, continued revolts by Byzantine Sicilians happened especially in the east and part of the lands were even re-occupied before being quashed. Agricultural items such as
oranges,
lemons,
pistachio and
sugar cane were brought to Sicily. As
dhimmis, the native Christians were allowed
freedom of religion but had to pay
an extra tax to their rulers. However, the
Emirate of Sicily began to fragment as inner-dynasty related quarrels took place between the Muslim regime. By the 11th century mainland southern Italian powers were hiring ferocious
Norman merecenaries, who were Christian descendants of the
Vikings based in
Normandy in
France; it was the Normans under
Roger I who freed Sicily from the Muslims. After taking
Apulia and
Calabria, he occupied
Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068,
Roger Guiscard and his men defeated the Muslims at
Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely in Norman control by 1091.
Kingdom of Sicily
Palermo continued on as the capital under the
Normans. Roger's son,
Roger II of Sicily, was ultimately able to raise the status of the island to a kingdom in 1130, along with his other holdings which included the
Duchy of Apulia and Calabria and the
Maltese Islands. 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
England. Significantly, immigrants from
Northern Italy and
Campania arrived during this period and linguistically the island became
Latinised, in terms of church it would become completely
Roman Catholic, previously under the Byzantines it had been more Eastern Christian.
After a century the Norman
Hauteville dynasty died out, the last direct descendent and heir of Roger;
Constance married
Emperor Henry VI. This eventually led to the crown of Sicily been passed on to the
Hohenstaufen Dynasty who were Germans from
Swabia. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the
Papacy, led in 1266 to
Pope Innocent IV crowning
Angevin Dynasty duke
Charles I as the king of both Sicily and Naples. Strong opposition of the
French officialdom due to mistreatment and
taxation saw the local peoples of Sicily rise up, leading in 1282 to an
insurrection known as the
War of the Sicilian Vespers, which eventually saw almost the entire French population on the island killed. During the war the Sicilians turned to
Peter III of the
Kingdom of Aragon for support after being rejected by the Pope. Peter gained control of Sicily from the French though the French retained control of the
Kingdom of Naples. The wars continued until the
peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, which saw
Frederick III recognised as king of the Isle of Sicily, while
Charles II was recognised as the king of Naples by
Pope Boniface VIII. Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives of the kings of Aragon until 1409 and then as part of the
Crown of Aragon.
The
Spanish Inquisition in 1492 saw
Ferdinand I decreeing the expulsion of every single
Jew from Sicily. The island was hit by two very serious earthquakes in the east in both 1542 and 1693, just a few years before the latter earthquake the island was struck by a ferocious plague. There were revolts during the 17th century, but these were quelled with significant force especially the revolts of Palermo and
Messina. The
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 saw Sicily assigned to the
House of Savoy, however this period of rule lasted only seven years as it was exchanged for the island of
Sardinia with
Emperor Charles VI of the
Austrian
Habsburg Dynasty.
While the Austrians were concerned with the
War of the Polish Succession, a
Bourbon prince,
Charles from
Spain was able to conquer Sicily and Naples. At first Sicily was able to remain as an independent kingdom under
personal union, while the Bourbons ruled over both from Naples. However the advent of
Napoleon's
First French Empire saw Naples taken at the
Battle of Campo Tenese and Bonapartist
Kings of Naples were instated.
Ferdinand III the Bourbon was forced to retreat to Sicily which he was still in complete control of with the help of
British naval protection. Following this Sicily joined the
Napoleonic Wars, after the wars were won Sicily and Naples formally merged as the
Two Sicilies under the Bourbons. Major
revolutionary movements occurred in 1820 and 1848 against the Bourbon government with Sicily seeking independence; the second of which, the
1848 revolution was successful and resulted in a sixteen month period of independence for Sicily, until the armed forces of the Bourbons regained control by May 1849.
Italian unification
After the
Expedition of the Thousand led by
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sicily became part of the
Kingdom of Italy in 1860 as part of the . The conquest started at
Marsala and was finally completed with the
Siege of Gaeta where the final Bourbons were expelled and Garibaldi announced his dictatorship in the name of
Victor Emmanuel II of
Sardinia. An anti-Savoy revolt pushing for Sicilian independence erupted in 1866 at
Palermo: this was quelled brutally by the Italians within just a week. The Sicilian (and the wider
mezzogiorno) economy collapsed, leading to an unprecedented
wave of emigration. Organisations of workers and peasants known as the
Fasci Siciliani, who were
leftist and
separatist groups rose and caused the Italian government to impose martial law again in 1894.
The
Mafia, a loose confederation of organised crime networks, grew in influence in the late 19th century; the
Fascist regime began suppressing them in the 1920s with some success. There was an
allied invasion of Sicily during
World War II starting on
July 10, 1943, the invasion of Sicily was one of the causes of the
July 25 crisis; in general the Allied victors were warmly embraced by the Sicilian population. Italy
became a Republic in 1946 and as part of the
Constitution of Italy, Sicily was one of the five regions given special status as an
autonomous region. Both the partial Italian
land reform and special funding from the Italian government's
Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Fund for the South) from 1950 to 1984, helped the Sicilian economy improve.
Politics
Geography
Sicily is directly adjacent to the Italian region of
Calabria, via the
Strait of Messina to the east. The early Roman name for Sicily was
Trinacria, alluding to its triangular shape.
Sicily has been noted for two millennia as a grain-producing territory.
Citrons,
oranges,
lemons,
olives,
olive oil,
almonds, and
wine are among its other
agricultural products. The
mines of the
Enna and
Caltanissetta district became a leading
sulfur-producing area in the 19th century but have declined since the 1950s.
Administratively Sicily is divided into nine provinces;
Agrigento,
Caltanissetta,
Catania,
Enna,
Messina,
Palermo,
Ragusa,
Syracuse and
Trapani. Also part of various Sicilian provinces are small surrounding islands, including the
Aeolian Islands, the
Aegadian Islands,
Pantelleria,
Ustica and the
Pelagian Islands.
The island of Sicily is
drained by several rivers, most of which flow through the central area and enter the sea at the south of the island. The
Salso River flows through parts of Enna and Caltanissetta before entering the
Mediterranean Sea at the port of
Licata. To the east the
Alcantara in the province of Messina, it exits at
Giardini-Naxos. The other two main rivers on the island are to the south-west with
Belice and
Platani.
Sicily and its small surrounding islands are highly significant in the area of
volcanology.
Mount Etna is the only
volcano on mainland Sicily located in the east; with a height of 3,320 m (10,900 ft) it's the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. As well as Etna, there are several non-volcanic
mountain ranges in Sicily, Sicani to the west, Eeri in the central era and Iblei in the south-east. Across the north of Sicily there are three other mountains Madonie,
Nebrodi and
Peloritani.
The
Aeolian Islands to the north-east are volcanically significant with
Stromboli currently active, also in the
Tyrrhenian Sea are the three dormant volcanos of
Vulcano,
Vulcanello and
Lipari. Off the Southern coast of Sicily, the underwater water volcano of
Ferdinandea, which is part of the larger
Empedocles last erupted in 1831. It is located between the coast of
Agrigento and the island of
Pantelleria (which itself is a dormant volcano), on the Phlegraean Fields of the
Strait of Sicily.
Climate
Sicily's position means that it enjoys a
Mediterranean climate with mild to warm, wet winters and warm to hot, dry summers.
Transport
The most prominent Sicilian roads are the
motorways (known as ) running through the northern section of the island, this includes the A19
Palermo-
Catania, the A20 Palermo-
Messina, the A29 Palermo-
Trapani-
Mazara del Vallo and the
toll road A18 Messina-Catania. Much of the motorway network is elevated by columns due to the mountainous terrain of the island. The Sicilian public is served by a network of
railway services, linking to most major cities and towns; this service is operated by
Trenitalia. There are services to
Naples and
Rome; this is achieved by the
trains being loaded onto
ferries which cross to the mainland.
Plans for a bridge linking Sicily to the mainland have been around since 1865. In the modern age, there are plans to link the railway to the mainland via the world's longest
suspension bridge, the
Strait of Messina Bridge, however planning for the project has been started, stopped and re-started during the 2000s; as of 2008 it's currently on course for planning. Some have criticised the plans particularly environmentalist Sicilians, leftists who argue the money should be spent elsewhere and the local ferry operators. In two of the main cities there are
underground railway services; these feature in the cities of Palermo and Catania.
Mainland Sicily has three
airports which fly to numerous European destinations; to the east is the
Catania-Fontanarossa Airport which is the busiest on the island (and one of the busiest in all of Italy). Palermo hosts the
Palermo International Airport, which is also substantially large, the third airport actually on the island is the
Trapani-Birgi Airport which is smaller. There are also two small airports on smaller islands which are considered part of Sicily;
Lampedusa Airport and
Pantelleria Airport. By
sea, Sicily is served by several
ferry routes most of which are to Sicily's small surrounding islands and mainland Italy (as well as
Sardinia), there's also a daily service between
Malta and
Pozzallo.
Society
Demographics
The people of Sicily are often portrayed as very proud of their island, identity and culture and it isn't uncommon for people to describe themselves as the regional focusing
Sicilian, before the more national description of
Italian. Despite the existence of major cities such as
Palermo,
Catania,
Messina and
Syracuse popular stereotypes of Sicilians commonly allude to
ruralism, for example the
coppola is one of the main symbols of Sicilian identity; it's derived from the
flat cap of rural
Northern England which arrived in 1800 when Bourbon king
Ferdinand I had fled to Sicily and was protected by the British
Royal Navy.
Throughout history Sicily has had various different rulers, from various different cultures, who have contributed elements to the overall culture of the island, especially from a
gastronomical and
architectural point of view. Sicilian people tend to most closely associate themselves with other
southern Italians, who they've the most common history with. Of the ethnicities outside of Italy itself, Sicilians and other southern Italians tend to associate most closely with the
Greeks, especially due to the
Magna Græcia and
Greco-Roman cultures. This is exemplified in the saying
"una faccia, una razza", meaning "one face, one race", a phrase Greeks and Southern Italians sometimes use in reference to each other. Modern methods of
genetic testing show that aside from other Italians, Greeks are indeed the closest genetically, while other former rulers gene flows are very limited.
The island of Sicily itself has a population of approximately five million, and there are an additional ten million people of Sicilian descent around the world, mostly in
North America,
Argentina,
Australia and other European countries. Like the rest of
Southern Italy, immigration to the island is very low compared to other regions of Italy because workers tend to head to
Northern Italy instead, due to better employment and industrial opportunities. The most recent
ISTAT figures show around 74 thousand immigrants out of the total five million population;
Tunisians with 14 thousand make up the most immigrants, followed by
Moroccans,
Sri Lankans,
Albanians and other
Eastern Europeans.
Major settlements
In Sicily there are fifteen cities and towns which have a population level above 50,000 people, these are;
Culture
Cuisine
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. The ingredients are typically rich in taste while remaining affordable to the general populance. The savory dishes of Sicily are viewed to be
healthy, implementing fresh vegetables and fruits, such as
tomatos,
artichokes,
olives (including
olive oil),
citrus,
apricots,
aubergines,
onions,
beans,
raisins commonly coupled with
sea food, freshly caught from the surrounding coastlines, including
tuna,
sea bream,
sea bass,
cuttlefish,
swordfish,
sardines and others.
Perhaps the most well known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich
sweet dishes including
ice creams and
pastries.
Cannoli, a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet filling usually containing
ricotta cheese, is in particular strongly associated with Sicily worldwide. Biancomanfiare, biscotti ennesi (cookies native to
Enna), braccilatte a Sicilian version of
doughnuts,
buccellato,
ciarduna,
pignoli,
frutta martorana,
cassata,
pignolata,
granita and
cuccìa are amongst some of the most notable sweet dishes.
Like the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy,
pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does
rice; for example with
arancini. As well as using some other
cheeses, Sicily has spawned some of its own, using both cows and sheeps milk, such as
pecorino and
caciocavallo. Spices used include
saffron,
nutmeg,
clove,
pepper, and
cinnamon which were introducted by the Arabs. Although commonly associated with sea food cuisines, meat dishes including
goose,
lamb,
goat and
turkey are also found in Sicily, it was the
Normans and
Hohenstaufen who first introduced a fondness for meat dishes to the island.
Arts
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.
Gorgias and
Empedocles are two other highly noted early Sicilian-Greek philosophers, while the Syracusan
Epicharmus is held to be the inventor of
comedy. The golden age of Sicilian poetry began in the early 13th century with the
Sicilian School, which was highly influential. Some of the most noted figures in the area of Sicilian poetry and writing are
Luigi Pirandello,
Salvatore Quasimodo,
Antonio Veneziano and
Giovanni Verga. On the political side notable Sicilian philosophers include:
Giovanni Gentile who wrote
The Doctrine of Fascism and
Julius Evola.
Terra cotta ceramics from the island are well known, the art of ceramics on Sicily goes back to the original ancient peoples named the
Sicanians, it was then perfected during the period of Greek colonisation and is still prominent and distinct to this day. There are two prominent
folk art traditions on Sicily, both draw heavily from
Norman influence;
Sicilian cart is the painting of wooden carts with intricate decorations of scenes from the Norman romantic poems, such as
The Song of Roland. The same tales are told in traditional
puppet theatres which feature hand-made
wooden marionettes, this is especially popular in
Acireale. Famous Sicilian painters include
Renaissance artist
Antonello da Messina,
Renato Guttuso and Greek born
Giorgio de Chirico who is commonly dubbed the "father of
Surrealist art" and founder of the
metaphysical art movement.
Palermo hosts the
Teatro Massimo, which is the largest
opera house in Italy and the third largest in all of
Europe. Sicilian composers vary from
Vincenzo Bellini,
Sigismondo d'India,
Giovanni Pacini and
Alessandro Scarlatti, to contemporary composers such as
Salvatore Sciarrino. Many award winning and acclaimed films of Italian cinema have been filmed in Sicily, amongst the most noted of which are;
Visconti's
"La Terra Trema" and
"Il Gattopardo",
Rosi's
"Salvatore Giuliano" and
Antonioni's
"L'avventura".
Language
Many Sicilians are bilingual in
Italian and
Sicilian, an entirely separate
Romance language which isn't derived from Italian and has a sizeable vocabulary with at least 250,000 words. Some of the words are
loan words with slight changes, taking influence from
Greek,
Latin,
Catalan,
Arabic,
Spanish and others. The Sicilian language is also spoken to some extent in
Calabria and
Apulia, it had a significant influence on the
Maltese language. In the modern age as Italian is taught in schools and is the language of the media, especially in some of the
urban areas Sicilian is now a secondary language amongst much of the youth.
The Sicilian language was an early influence in the development of the first Italian standard, although its use remained confined to an intellectual élite. 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 Florentine by
Dante Alighieri, the father of modern Italian who, in his claims that "In effect this vernacular seems to deserve a higher praise than the others, since all the poetry written by Italians can be called Sicilian". It is in this language that appeared the first
sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini himself.
There is also a couple of less common, unofficial languages spoken on the island. In around five small Palermitan villages,
Arbëreshë dialect of the
Albanian language has been spoken since a wave of refugees settled there in the 15th century; these people are predominantly
Byzantine Catholics and chant
Greek at local Byzantine
liturgy. There are also several
Ennese towns where dialects of the
Lombard language of the
Gallo-Italic family are spoken. Much of these two groups of people are tri-lingual, being able to also speak Italian and Sicilian.
Sports
The best known and most popular sport on the island of Sicily is
football, which was introduced in the late 1800s under the influence of the
English. Some of the oldest football clubs in all of Italy are Sicilian: the three most successful are
Palermo,
Messina and
Catania, who have all, at some point, played in the prestigious
Serie A. To date, no Sicilian side has ever won Serie A, however football is deeply embeded in local culture, all over Sicily each town has its own representative team.
Palermo and Catania have a heated rivalry and compete in the
Sicilian derby together: to date Palermo is the only Sicilian team to have played on the European stage, in the
UEFA Cup. The most noted Sicilian footballer is
Salvatore Schillaci who won the
Golden Boot at the
1990 FIFA World Cup with
Italy. Other noted Sicilian players include
Giuseppe Furino,
Pietro Anastasi,
Francesco Coco,
Christian Riganò and Roberto Galia. There have also been some noted managers from the island, such as
Carmelo Di Bella and
Franco Scoglio.
Although football is by far the most popular sport in Sicily, the island also has participants in other fields.
Amatori Catania compete in the top Italian national
rugby union league called
Super 10, they've even participated at European level in the
European Challenge Cup. Competing in the
basketball variation of
Serie A is
Orlandina Basket from
Capo d'Orlando in the
province of Messina, the sport has a reasonable following. Various other sports which are played to some extent includes
volleyball,
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. The event was started in 1906 by Sicilian industrialist and automobile enthusiast
Vincenzo Florio, and ran until it was cancelled due to safety concerns in 1977.
World Heritage Sites
Noto,
Ragusa, and particularly
Acireale contain some of Italy's best examples of
Baroque architecture, carved in the local red
sandstone.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sicily'.
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