FlyingMonk

Sicily

The island of Sicily, located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, represented a center of civilization of the classical era, preserving to these days layers of its successive conquests. The island was invaded by the Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Byzantines, French, Spaniards and most recently Italians, their vestiges being spread all over the island. These occupations scarred the island and depleted her of its riches but in the same time left a fantastic collection of monuments, a cultural heritage difficult to par in any other part of the world. The island is still relatively poor and the new "occupiers", Italy, tried hard to cut her from its meager past but poverty, the Mafia, and a corrupt political system drove many people out of the island looking for a better life in the New World. In spite of being for a relatively long time part of Italy, the Sicilians speak a dialect totally different from Italian, seasoned with words from centuries of various occupations. Beside all these interesting and unique features that make Sicily an extremely attractive destination we have to take in consideration the Sicilian food that is easily one the best of Europe.

We flew to Catania, the birth place of the opera composer Bellini, and we climbed on its nearby Mt. Etna that became pretty active recently blocking the access to the top, to Siracusa, the city where Archimede was born and lived, to Piaza Armerina, in whose neighborhood are the famous and magnificent mosaics of Roman Villa of Casale, to Agrigento, with its Vale Di Templi that impressed Goethe so much that he declared that after you see it you can not rejoice seeing something else, to Eracle Minoa and Sciacca, famous place for ceramics, to Erice, medieval hill town, and to the famous-infamous Palermo, a vibrant baroque city, full of beautiful buildings and the center of Mafia. From Palermo we visited the cathedral of Monreale, a Sistine chapel of the mosaics, and the village of Corleone, the place from where Mafia ruled Sicily for the last 50 years, to Cefalu, a pretty town on the North coast with its mosaic covered cathedral, ending in the glitzy resort of Taormina.

Come and see our travel video and you will never forget this place.