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The island city in the lagoon between Marsala and Trapani was used from the 8th century BC by the Phoenicians as a base for controlling shipping routes in the eastern Mediterranean. It became a Carthaginian stronghold until its complete destruction by Syracuse in 397 BC. Today, the small island is covered with remains of that great city – walls with fortified gates and towers surround the entire perimeter and there is a man-made harbour within the walls. Ancient paved roads and sacred and residential areas can also be clearly seen (see Marsala).

After 30 years of crusades, Count Roger de Hautville took Sicily in 1091 (see Count Roger).

The Greek military leader wandered the Mediterranean for 10 years trying to get home. Many of his adventures took place on Sicily.

On 11 November, St Martin’s Day, families celebrate their new, thick, spicy, green olive oil by sampling it on i muffuletti , round sandwich loaves baked with fennel seeds and dressed with salt and oil. If they don’t have their own olive trees, families obtain a year’s supply of olive oil from a relative or another trusted source, making sure to have a full giara , a waist-high terracotta storage jar.

The tiny island is a bustling mix of temples, churches, museums, open piazzas, seaside bars, markets and shops.

Given its long history of invasion (see Vestiges of Invading Powers), Sicily has always been a cosmopolitan island, and nowhere more so than in its capital. Palermo is home to places of worship for a number for faiths, including a mosque – a clear remnant of its former Arab inhabitants.

Fresh pasta, made of regular wheat flour, was made in Italy as early as the Etruscan era. Dried pasta, which can be stored, was most likely invented by the Arabs using Sicily’s semola , a hard durum wheat flour.

The daughter of Demeter and Zeus (also known as Kore or, to the Romans, Proserpine) rules as both Queen of the Underworld and Goddess of Fertility.

Demeter’s daughter was abducted by Hades into the Underworld at Lake Pergusa.

While gathering lilies, violets and hyacinths with her girlfriends in fields below Enna, Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to reign as Queen of the Underworld.