“The softness of everything, the harmonious unity of the sky with the sea and of the sea with the land, the colors… who has seen them once in Sicily, will possess them for whole his life” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Geography Sicily is the largest island of the mediterrean sea, and it is surronded by many other small islands. Its form is simialiar to a triangle, so It is often called “Trinacria”, a word coming from the ancient greek that means “three vertices”. The territory of Sicily is mainly hilly, but there are some mountain groups (as the Madonie) and two famous volcanos: Stromboli, that is in a very small island near Sicily, and overall the famous Etna, that is the highest volcano of Europe and one of the largest on earth. The coasts of Sicily are famous all over the world, and some of them attracts every years thousand of tourists.

Taormina, one of the most visited place in SicilyThe famous volcano Etna Zingaro Nature Reserve near Trapani

Climate, Fauna and Flora Beacuse of its geographical position, Sicily’s climate is typically mediterrean, so there are hot summer but also mild winter. In the Odyssey of Homer Sicily is called “Sun Island” because generally here during the day the hours during which sun bright are a lot. Thanks to this climate in Sicily you can find a typical mediterrean flora made by a lot of kind of shrubs, altough there are some forests (as the park of etna’s one). The Fauna is very various.

History Thanks to its position at the center of the mediterrean sea, Sicily have always been a melting pot of a lot of different cultures. During the centuries, many people conquered the island: Phoenician, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Spanish, Normans, French and many others. Because of this, today Sicily has a great cultural wealth, and you can still see the testimoniances of these different dominations: for example some cities, such as Palermo, has a typical arab aspect, where as others, such as Siracusa, has a greek one.

The Greek Theater in SyracuseThe “Valley of Temples” in Agrigento The Cathedral in Noto, a baroque city Monreale’s Byzantine Cathedral

Amministration Sicilian Parlament is one of the oldest in history: it was created in Today, Sicily is of course part of Italy, but because of its being an island, it is, according to Italian Laws, a region with a special constitution. Also the small islands near Sicily (such as Aeolian Islands, Aegadian Islands or Lampedusa) politically belongs to the region. The main cities are: Palermo (that is the capital of the island), Catania and Messina.