DK Travel : Sicily

The island of Sicily is Italy’s largest region and is also its most varied. In terms of geography, there are offshore islands, endless coastline, rugged mountains, rolling wheatfields and volcanos, but its history and architecture are also of note. Sicily formed a significant portion of the Greek empire, was strategically vital to Rome, and was invaded in succession by the Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French, Spanish and Bourbons, before unifying with Italy. Each conquest left its mark, to create a palimpsest of cultures on the island.

Ducetius

In what was the last resistance effort against the Greeks, Ducetius unified his people, the Sicels of eastern Sicily, in 452 BC. He succeeded in fortifying positions and redistributing land until suffering final defeat at the hands of Syracuse.
Duomo

One of the most spectacular buildings in Sicily, the dramatic Baroque façade fronts a 5th-century BC Doric Temple to Athena. It was transformed into a church in the 7th century AD. Clearly visible inside and out are monolithic Doric columns.
Durum Wheat

The secret behind Sicily’s flavourful bread and pasta. The countryside is covered with wheat fields.
Dwarf Palm

The tiny palm flourishes in the northwest; its fronds are used by craftsmen for weaving baskets and brooms.
Earthquakes

In 1908 an earthquake killed more than 70,000 people and levelled more than 90 per cent of Messina. The next quake, in 1968, left scores of villages destroyed in the Belice Valley. Thousands were housed in shelters for 15 years, waiting for the Italian government to resolve the problem.
Easter Sunday, Castelvetrano

Crowds gather in Castelvetrano to see the statue of Christ enter from one end of the piazza, while the Madonna enters from the other. To a dramatic drum beat, they move toward one another and come together in an embrace.
Egadi Islands

Levanzo, Favignana and Marettimo are about 20 minutes from Trapani by hydrofoil and are great for relaxing on a summer’s day as there is pretty much nothing here except for the sea. They are most famous for the mattanza , the Arabic tuna-fishing ritual that is still practiced here in spring. Favignana is dotted with tufa quarries that give the island a pockmarked look; the caves of Levanzo’s interior have Paleolithic and Neolithic paintings, and swimming and sunbathing is good on all three islands. Marettimo, the furthest from the mainland, is known for its extraordinarily clear waters.
Emigration

After Unification, however, Sicily found itself highly taxed and ignored as an outpost of a “foreign” government. Peasant farmers found themselves unable to feed their families and there was no means for improvement. Such poverty became the motivating factor for mass emigration to the Americas in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Enna

From the valley floor to the east, Enna presents an impressive sight, the Rock of Demeter dominating the cliff above the site where Persephone was abducted by Hades (see Enna).
Enna

Because of its easily defendable position on the top of a tall hill, Enna was almost the only town in the interior for centuries. The Greeks called it the “umbilicus of Sicily”, and it was a key position for any group that wanted to take the island. Enna was so well defended that the Arabs, having tried to capture it for 20 years, resorted to crawling in through the sewer system. In the historic centre see the Gothic Duomo with Baroque renovations; the church of San Giovanni with an Arab dome; the Museo Alessi’s comprehensive ancient coin collection and objects from the Duomo’s treasury; and the museum of Sicily in Miniature, documenting local traditions, such as costumes from Holy Week festivals.