Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sicily Highlights
Joining the ranks of opera-goers at elegant Teatro Massimo in
Palermo
(
Click here
).
Bargaining with the fish vendors at dawn, climbing Europe's most active volcano in the afternoon and enjoying
Sicily's nightlife in
Catania
(
Click here
)
.
Marvelling at the majesty of
Segesta(
Click here
)
, where a Doric temple sits in splendid isolation on a
windswept hillside.
Watching international stars perform against the breathtaking backdrop of Mt Etna at the summer performing
arts festivals in
Taormina
(
Click here
)
.
Soaking up the sun, watch- ing Stromboli's volcanic fireworks and hiking to your heart's content on the stun-
ningly scenic
Aeolian Islands
(
Click here
)
.
Wandering aimlessly in Ortygia's atmospheric alleys or among the citrus groves, caves and ruins of the vast ar-
chaeological park in
Syracuse
(
Click here
)
.
Admiring prancing wild beasts and dancing bikini-clad gymnasts on the newly restored mosaic floors of
Villa
Romana del Casale
(
Click here
).
History
Sicily's most deeply ingrained cultural influences originate from its first inhabitants - the
Sicani from North Africa, the Siculi from Latium (Italy) and the Elymni from Greece. The
subsequent colonisation of the island by the Carthaginians (also from North Africa) and the
Greeks, in the 8th and 6th centuries BC respectively, compounded this cultural divide
through decades of war when powerful opposing cities struggled to dominate the island.
Although part of the Roman Empire, it was not until the Arab invasions of AD 831 that
Sicily truly came into its own. Trade, farming and mining were all fostered under Arab in-
fluence and Sicily soon became an enviable prize for European opportunists. The Normans,
desperate for a piece of the pie, invaded in 1061 and made Palermo the centre of their ex-
panding empire and the finest city in the Mediterranean.
Impressed by the cultured Arab lifestyle, King Roger squandered vast sums on ostenta-
tious palaces and churches, and encouraged a hedonistic atmosphere in his court. But such
prosperity - and decadence (Roger's grandson, William II, even had a harem) - inevitably
gave rise to envy and resentment and, after two centuries of pleasure and profit, the Nor-
man line was extinguished and the kingdom passed to the austere German House of Hohen-
staufen, with little opposition from the seriously eroded and weakened Norman occupation.
In the centuries that followed, Sicily passed to the Holy Roman Emperors, Angevins
(French) and Aragonese (Spanish) in a turmoil of rebellion and revolution that continued
