Pretoria Fountain
Located in center of Palermo
If Sicily's past has made it a world apart, it has also left it among the lands most able to provide a wake-up call to the spirit, a sensuality to the mind. Whatever your reasons for visiting Sicily, you'll find a fascinating land full of beauty and charm, complexities and contradictions, ancient dignity and medieval splendor.
Some of the atmosphere of Mount Etna is reflected in the spirit of the people. They, too, are violent and secretive. Yet family life is the centre and source of all their happiness. Milestones like first communions and weddings take on a momentous tone. And strangers are treated with kindness, hospitality and generousity.
Palermitans celebrate the feast of Santa Rosalia annually on July 12-15. The legend goes like this: The 15 year old neice of William the Good was so overcome with feelings of sanctity she disappeared to a hermit's cave on Pellegrino Mountain, there to pass a life of anonymity and finally to die in 1159. Then in 1624, while Palermo was in grip of plague, a holy man saw her in a dream at her final resting place. He convinced locals to collect her bones, that had acquired magical healing powers, and parade them round the walls of the city three times to abate the plague, which then at once receded. Rosalia's cave was converted into a chapel and the miraculous waters from the mountain drip down its walls. Anyone who fears going to Sicily because of what they see on the news is being silly. It doesn't have a monopoly on car-bombs and assassinations, and the quaint way in which the Mafia conducts its internal politics has nothing to do with you. Organized crime doesn't pose a threat to tourists at all. Mafia shootings are quite rare; you're far more likely to see one described in the newspaper or on the evening news than to witness one firsthand.
The police in Italy are of several varieties. The 'Carabinieri' and Polizia Statale' are the national forces who take care of business in rural areas. The 'Guardia di Finanza' is the tax police. They patrol coastal waters for smugglers and haunt towns for businesses cheating on their income statements. They stop people outside bars and restaurants at random asking to see receipts. Tax law in Italy orders proprietors to give patrons a receipt for everything they eat or drink, which you are supposed to take out of the establishment with you and carry 300 meters in case the receipt police intercept you. Only in Italy. . .
True Sicilian language has a huge vocabulary of its own with a dialect that is characterized by the letter U. Recent discoveries indicate that the language spoken by native Sicilians is quite similar to both Phoenician and Greek. Linguistically it is rich, full of contributions from early Latin, Greek, Arabic, French, and Spanish. Today intellectuals are making an effort to keep it alive as a literary and spoken language by publishing more books in Sicilian and promoting school classes in this true dialect.
Sicily, with its patchwork of cultures, is the perfect choice to learn about the history of Western civilization mostly reflected in its architecture: Greek temples and amphitheaters, Roman settlements, unique Norman-Arab churches and palaces, Bysantine and Gothic churches, fortified medieval castles, and Baroque churches and palaces.
It was the Greeks whose mythology and folklore asserted the greatest influence on Sicily. In the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula were colonized by Greeks, earning the region the name Magna Gracia (Great Greece) because it boasted more Greeks and Greek temples than Greece itself.
The Norman lord, Roger de Hauteville, captured Palermo in 1071 making Sicily again part of Europe. His rule brought with it religious freedom, multicultural artistic expressions and national sovereignty. Count Roger's son, Roger II, was crowned King of Sicily in 1130 and ruled a dominion that included most of Italy south of Rome, with Palermo as its capital. It was the wealthiest realm in Europe.
In 1198, Frederick II von Hohenstaufen ascended the throne and ruled through the Golden Age of Sicily. From Palermo's splendid royal palace he sat as Holy Roman Emperor through a peaceful era admired across the Mediterranean and the world.
In 1734, Charles de Bourbon, son of the King of Spain, brought degree of autonomy to Sicily and Naples. He built splendid palaces and made Naples the wealthiest, most opulent city in Italy. Charles's grandson, Ferdinand II, was born in Palermo, spending most of his time at the spendid Chinese Villa in a park at the foot of Mount Pellegrino or at an estate in the mountains near Corleone. When Ferdinand abolished feudalism, thus abrogating the last land rights of the nobility, Sicily enjoyed an economic boom.
During the First World War, a high number of southerners died for their young nation, and the Fascist government, headed by Benito Mussolini that came to power in 1922, did little to alter this unbalanced conscription policy. Most Italians were worse off by Mussolini's attempts to make Italy self-sufficient. In the absence of the miracles Mussolini had promised, the Sicilinas welcomed the Allies as liberators in 1943. A plaque commemorating the American lives lost during the fighting is visible in Palermo's Anglican Church on Via Roma.
Italians harbor very strong views regarding political parties. Despite a degree of political autonomy, government in Sicily is inefficient and corrupt due to organized crime that still persists. Billions in drug money flow in each year creating an economy that cannot be controlled by the state, or even rightly understood. The 1997 mayorial election in Palermo was notably the first in decades in which the main issue of the campaign related to the city itself (urban transportation) rather than the alleged corruption of one or all of the candidates. While no one can conclude that the Mafia is a thing of the past, there are signs that the tide has finally turned.
A few of my favorite Italian sites:
A great book about true Sicilians
Sicilian Oranges - I love 'em!
In Italy Online - Tons of information. Check out the Sicilian food page for a great recipe.
Sicily remains what it has always been: a spectacular land of rugged mountains, golden wheat fields and rocky coasts inhabited by a fiercely independent people who bring passion to everything they do. The history of Sicily, physically and politically, has always been one of violence. It's origin is revealed only too plainly by the grimness of the mountains and hills. Yet it is a fascinatingly beautiful island; small wonder poets and authors have found inspiration within its shores.
Triskele - Centuries old Sicilian symbol
"Italy without Sicily cannot be understood; Sicily is the key to everything." -Goethe, 13 April, 1787
Porta Nuova
Bagheria with its 17th century villas. Palermo aristocracy have summer homes here.
Dominating Sicily's skyline are numerous churches. Vast heavily decorated baroque edifices, they rise immense above the cluster of small houses below. One is seldom far from the sounds of bells ringing from their towers. Even with a decreasing number of churchgoers most Sicilians appreciate the beauty of Catholic traditions, and some Catholic feasts are national and local holidays.
Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia
Sicily is ruled by the clergy, with their promises of heaven or hell, and by the Mafia, with its power of life and death. Between these the average Sicilian scapes a living during the day, while in the evening he makes love to his wife reproducing his kind to continue the family cycle.
Palermo Duomo in Piazza della Cattedrale. Begun by the Normans in 1185 it is adorned with Arab influences and graceful Gothic towers. Inside are tombs and sarcophagi of Norman kings and Hohenstaufen emperors from the 12th to 14th centuries. The ashes of Santa Rosalia are contained in a silver urn. Connected by flying buttresses to the Cathedral is the former archbishop's massive and opulent palace (1460).
Church of St.Francis of Assisi
Frederick's heirs proved less able than he, and Sicilian independence came to an end in 1266. After continuous wars the island was ruled by the Spanish Peter of Aragon for the next four centuries. In 1350, Martin, grandson of the King of Aragon ascended the throne to restore order but with no effect and no real reforms.
The seeds of dessent had been sown, however, and in 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi capitalized on the weakness of Sicily and soon conquered the kingdom. In 1861 a false referendum confirmed King Victor Emanuel II of Sardinia, "King of Italy." The decades following witnessed Sicily's gradual economic decline, the result of punitive taxation and other national economic policies. Between 1890 and 1930, hundreds of thousands of Sicilians left fot the Americas.
