Area: 25.707 Km2

People : 5.108.067

 

This “triangle in the  Mediterranean Sea” - but where nothing vanishes -   has the northern side watching towards the Tirreno Sea,  the eastern side towards the Ionio Sea and the southern side watches towards the African coast.

 

It sparkles like a beacon in the night for history, culture and artistic works left by the peoples which have ruled over it during the course of the centuries. 

 

It has Punic origins and its ground has been treaded on by the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians. The Arabs have dominated it for 3 centuries, and after them arrived the Normans, and then the Swabians, followed by the Angevins and the Aragoneses. And still the Spanish domination which was not less tyrannical than that French, and subsequently has been the time of the Savoyards, then that of the Austrians and of the Bourbons...each domination has left the best: the splendid buildings, the churches, the gardens and, why not, also the prescriptions of special kitchen dishes entered by then to make part of the insular culture.

 

The Sicilians are finally remained single and masters of theirs territories only in the 1860 year with the unification and the annexation to the Italian Reign.

And still today they don't know very well what to do with it…  

 

 

The Sicily is land of strong contrasts: sky and sea full of light, super white or rocked beaches, soft hills and desolate tableland dried up from the sun. It is densely populated long the coastal plains. In the inside one still finds villages where seems that the time is stopped and the people still reflects the ancient and generous character of the Sicilians of a time: cordial but reserved, distrustful but generous, proud and to the same simple .

 

There are two big green lungs in the island: the chain of the Madonie, with altitudes that catch up almost the 2000 mt. and that one of the Nebrodi, mountainous relieves totally covered of forests and punctuates by stretches of water constituting the emerged prosecution of the Appennine ridge. The Nebrodi is found to East of the island, back to the Etna, the active volcano more important in  Europe.

 

The nature, in its wilder and natural aspect, can be met also with a simple  tour, in airplane or helicopter, which will carry you to the small islands that encircle the Sicily. Among these Pantelleria and Lampedusa, few  miles off from Tunisia, the Aeolian islands (or Lipari) in the Tyrrhenian Sea facing  the northern coast of the Sicily, the Egadi islands to West and Ustica to North, 75 Km. far from Palermo, dream of all sub for the transparency of waters and the splendor of its soundings.

 

Three the most important airports in the island: Falcone-and-Borsellino Airport close to Palermo, the Birgi airport close to Trapani and the Fontanarossa airport close to Catania. There are also some airports in the island assigned to airplanes of small dimensions. The connections via-sea with the other islands and the rest of Italy are frequent and well organized.

 

 

 

Provincie:  Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina, PALERMO, Ragusa, Siracusa, Trapani.