Sicily
Welcome to an island where all the beauty of nature seems to have laid down and found its natural home. Also known by the Italian as “L’Isola”, Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, embracing the minor surrounding islands as the Aeolian Islands, Lampedusa and Pantelleria, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the South-East and the Ionian Sea in the North. Sicily is popular all over the world for its natural beauties such as Giardini Naxos, Mount Etna, the Eolie Islands and so on. Sicily has got the one of the largest still active volcanoes in Europe, the Etna, which attracts tourists, photographers and local people to witness the curious and majestic combination of nature, power and danger.
Once arrived on the Island, one is able to face and directly touch a piece of history, from Roman to Greek, through Arabic onto Byzantine ages: all the cultures dominating the island left a cultural good on it, in order to form a melting pot of history, culture and charm. Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes, as the gate to Italy and Northern and Oriental Europe. Owning a unique culture, especially concerning arts, cuisine, architecture and history, Sicily is becoming more and more one of the top destination regarding leisure and cultural vacation due to its rural countryside, breathtaking coastlines and majestic islands. Sicily is said to house the best preserved temples and archaeological founds of the Roman and Greek age, such as Necropolis of Pantalica and the Valley of the Temples. On the island the cities of Palermo, Catania, Messina and Siracusa are great agglomeration points, where culture and night life come together, in order to integrate the traveller into a real local contest. Palermo hosts the largest opera house in Italy, which is Teatro Massimo, a place where the most famous artist during the whole century performed their skills regarding opera, theatre and ballet. Regarding entertainment, in Sicily there are a number of various festivals during the whole year, no matter if you like folklore, music or theatre.
Due to its fertile soil and pleasant climate, Sicily has risen to an important wine producer and exporter: summarized, in Sicily wine growers produce more wine than New Zeland, Austria and Hungary all put together: Even if it was previously known for the fortified Marsala wines, in the last decades the wine producers are experimenting with less-known native varietal, especially the Nero d’Avola grapes, increasing more and more the wine reputation of the island. On the same issue, La Cucina Siciliana, the famous local cuisine, also nicknamed God’s Kitchen, is maybe the chief under the Italian cooking influences, taken over from a number of international nutritionists. The delicious dishes of Sicily have reputation to be healthy, using fresh vegetables and fruits, raisins commonly coupled with sea food, freshly caught from the surrounding coastlines. Desserts and sweet pastry are the best-known issues of Sicilian cuisine; the leaders under them are ice cream and the Cannoli Siciliani, a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with sweet ricotta cream.
Many historically relevant people found their roots in Sicily, as Archimedes, native from Siracusa, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. At least we invite you to discover this rich island, and to witness a real travel experience.
