9 Great Reasons to Visit Sicily

1. Palermo

Palermo, the capital of Sicily is located on the north coast of the island and is known for a host of interesting sites that highlight the Norman period of the island's history. Covering an area of over 240 hectares - about one square mile - Palermo's old city center is one of the largest in Europe as well as being one of the richest and most varied. It contains over 500 palaces, churches, convents, and monasteries, plus seven theaters. On our tour of Palermo we will visit, among other sites, the Temple di Normi, the regional Archaeology museum, the Duomo and the buildings of the Old Town in the historic center of the city.

2. Gastronomy

Sicily's complex history has left its mark in architecture, landscapes, culture, and customs. But nowhere is it more evident than in the food. Greeks brought grapes and olives and introduced population to wine making; Romans introduced fava beans, chick peas, lentils and some forms of pasta; Arabs brought almonds, aniseed, apricots, cinnamon, pistachio, saffron, sesame and rice. They also started a long Sicilian love affair with sweets, including ice cream and granita (made with snow from Etna and other mountains), marzipan and candied fruits. Normans and Hohenstaufen brought some of their northern European innovations including the rotating skewer for cooking meat and air salting of fish. The French who followed them brought a legacy of chefs for the aristocracy. The New World provided chili, sweet peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and maize and all of these were incorporated into existing recipes so that they would now be unimaginable without them. Today, you will eat very well all over Sicily. One telling characteristic is that you will rarely eat anything that has not been produced within a few miles of where you are sitting. The freshest fish on the coast, the tastiest meats and cheeses in the interior and a huge range of vegetables, fruits and fungi, all with a richness of flavor that you just don't find at the supermarket! Whether you prefer the traditional fare of the simplest local trattoria, or the more sophisticated and elaborate dishes on offer in a range of modern restaurants all over the island, such is the pride that Sicilians take in their cooking that you will rarely be disappointed.

3. St. Agata's Titties

In the pasticcerie in Sicily you can buy the small ricotta and icing sugar cup-cakes with a cherry on top, called St. Agata's titties ('i minni i St. Agata', in dialect).. It is said that during the persecution of Emperor Decius in 251, the invading Roman tyrant in Sicily, Quintianus, conceived a passion for Agatha, who was of noble birth and great beauty. And when he could not make her consent to his desires, as Agatha was determined to live faithful to Christ, he had her arrested as a Christian.
Then, the Praetor gave her the choice of sacrificing to the gods or undergoing torture. When beatings with white hot metal failed to shake her constancy to Christ, he ordered her breasts cut off. It is said that after she had been returned to prison, the Apostle Peter appeared to her and healed her wounds. The following day she was subjected to new tortures, but an earthquake from Mount Etna shook the town and terrified the people. Whereupon, the Praetor, fearing a riot, ordered Agatha to be returned quietly to prison. There, in the town of Catania, she died in "peace", on February 5th, and her body was taken and buried by Christians. To this day the saint protects the city and its inhabitants, who turn to her in their moments of need. This long history with Agatha began on February 1st, 252 AD, just a year after the martyrdom of the Christian virgin when a violent eruption was miraculously stopped by holding up a veil that had belonged to the unfortunate girl. According to legend, the veil stopped the flow of lava and mysteriously changed color. Ever since that fateful day, the people of Catania have turned to the protective veil in order to face the menace of Etna. In 1444 and again during the catastrophic eruption of March 8th, 1669 the veil appeared to stop the threatening flow of lava. In 1743, St. Agatha is believed to have saved the people of Catania from the plague, which decimated the nearby population of Messina. In 1886 the saint's veil, carried in procession, stopped lava yet again at the nearby town of Nicolosi.

4. Wine

One of Europe's oldest viticultural regions offers some wonderful surprises. Sicily's oenological history is an ancient one, dating from the time when the island was part of Magna Graecia. One usually associates fine wines with eastern Sicily and the areas near Mount Etna, but many new wineries have sprung up across the island. Sicilian oeniculture is not just varietals. Sicily's vintage wines are a magical creation, and many of the island's traditional wines and spirits are famous far beyond its shores. Several boast denomination of origin (appellation). Sicily has its own table and dessert wines, and a number of regional liqueurs.

5. Marsala

Marsala, located in western Sicily facing the Egadi Islands, is Sicily's largest wine producing center and probably the region with the most interesting history. British Admiral Nelson discovered the wines of Marsala when passing through its port in the year 1800 and became so enamored of them he ordered 500 barrels to take along with him to his fleet awaiting him in Malta. Marsala suffered (along with other wines like Sherry and Port) when the market's taste changed and favored dry wines, and many Marsala producers lowered the image of the brand by making flavored wines used mainly for cooking. Luckily certain producers continued to make ever-finer wines, and managed to once again make the Marsala name famous. Wineries such as Florio are simply a "must do" while in Sicily, with a fascinating history and top class wines. The beautiful cellar dates back to 1832. The estate is huge, housing long cellars with over 100 arches, and a collection of over 40,000 historic Florio wine bottles. Many famous and infamous visitors have come to taste wines here from King Vittore Emanuele to Mussolini.

6. The Valley of the Temples

The Valley of the Temples is one of the most important archeological sites in the world and in 1997 it was named a UNESCO World heritage site. Situated a few miles from the present-day Agrigento, the city was initially founded as a Greek colony in the 6th century BC and it quickly became a major cultural center. The doric style temples in the valley were all constructed within a century. Each of the temples face east, which was a standard criteria for both Greek and Roman temples, this was done so that the statue of the god housed in each temple would be illuminated by the rising sun. One can only imagine how beautiful this area was when it was a thriving city and the temples were almost all complete.

7. Taormina

As soon as you arrive in Taormina, you will feel the magical, mythical atmosphere spread all around which has enchanted visitors from all over the world for many years. Settled on a hill of the Monte Tauro, Taormina dominates two grand, sweeping bays below. And on the southern side, the top of Mount Etna, the European highest active volcano, often capped with snow, offers a breathtaking, dramatic and memorable view over almost one hundred miles of Mediterranean sea.

Taormina's beauty has attracted many a civilization throughout the ages; Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Saracens, Arabs, Normans and Spaniards chose it as their out-of-native-country site thanks to its favorable position and mild climate. Many artists and writers have also fallen under the spell of Taormina. In 1787 Goethe discovered the beauties of Sicily and, in particular, of Taormina. He wrote the well known novel "Italian Journey", in which he describes the charm of this land and its people and pronounced Taormina a "patch of paradise". The German painter Otto Geleng displayed these magical landscapes in Parisian art galleries and his contemporary, the young Prussian photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden settled down in 1880 and made Taormina famous with his artistic portraits of nude shepherd boys with Etna on the backstage.

Since then many important celebrities visited Taormina, electing it as their "escape" from chaotic city life. Patrik Brydone D.H. Lawrence, Truman Capote, Alexander Dumas, Anatole France, Andrè Gide, Paul Klee, Guy de Maupassant, Luigi Pirandello, John Steinbeck, Gustav Klimt, Elio Vittorini, Oscar Wilde, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms spent happy moments here. In more recent times movie, theater and music celebrities such as Ingmar Bergmann, Francis Ford Coppola, Leonard Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Federico Fellini, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck, Marcello Mastroianni, Elisabeth Taylor, Woody Allen have spent pleasant and memorable holidays in the Mediterranean pearl.

8. Teatro Greco

The Greek Amphitheater is Taormina's most visited monument, offering rare views of Mount Etna and the seacoast. In the Hellenistic period, the Greeks hewed the theater out of the rocky slope of Mount Tauro. Subsequently the Romans remodeled and modified it greatly so that what remains today dates mostly from the 2nd century A.D. Today, the theater is the site of the annual Taormina film festival.

9. Mount Etna

Mount Etna certainly is one of the top reasons to visit Sicily. To the ancient Greeks, Mount Etna was the realm of Vulcan, god of fire, and the home of the one-eyed monster known as the Cyclops. At approximately 3350 meters, it is Europe's highest active volcano. The height of its summit changes with each eruption, and over the centuries a few lava flows have reached the coast. Over 1200 square meters of Etna's surface is covered with solidified lava. Etna offers skiing in the winter months and breathtaking hikes in the woods during the summer. There are also a number of smaller peaks on the slopes of Etna, and some interesting caverns. Since Etna is a strato volcano, with relatively cool lava temperatures and numerous openings (vents), nobody ever knows precisely where on its vast surface the next eruption will be. Etna's long recorded history has proven invaluable to the world's vulcanologists.

I look forward to sharing this great adventure with you

Toby