Sicily and visitors from abroad
Sicily has always been a destination for European nobility and the upper middle class. The island was often the final stop on the so-called Grand Tour.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous German poet and thinker, on April 13, 1787 in Palermo: “Italy without Sicily makes no image in the soul: here is the key to everything.” In May 1787, he told Duke Karl August: “The fact that I have seen Sicily is an indestructible treasure for my whole life.”
Italy > Sicily
The Autonomous Region of Sicily includes the island of Sicily and some offshore small islands and archipelagos. The main island has an area of 25,703 km² and a population of 4,968,410 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019). The island also boasts 1152 kilometers of coastline. The beaches, some of which are not inferior to the picturesque beaches in the Caribbean, invite you to swim. The capital and seat of government of the Autonomous Region is Palermo. With 657,960 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019), Palermo is the fifth largest city in Italy. Sicily has a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild, humid winters. In the interior, the climate is milder than on the coasts. The island is located on the “tip of the boot” of Italy and is the remnant of a land bridge that long ago connected Europe and Africa. The most striking geographical feature of the island is the volcano Etna rising to around 3357 meters (as of 2021), which repeatedly attracts attention with its eruptions.
Sicily consists of 9 free municipal consortia or metropolitan cities, which we would like to introduce to you here.
- Agrigento – Brief info with map available here: AGRIGENTO
- Caltanissetta – Brief info with map available here: CALTANISSETTA
- Catania – Brief info with map available here: CATANIA
- Enna – Brief info with map available here:ENNA
- Messina – Brief info with map available here: MESSINA
- Palermo – Brief info with map available here: PALERMO
- Ragusa – Brief info with map available here: RAGUSA
- Syracuse – Brief info with map available here: SYRACUSE
- Trapani – Brief info with map available here: TRAPANI
Sicily has always been visited or inhabited by a wide variety of peoples who have left their mark on the island, especially culturally, culinarily and architecturally. In particular, the island was influenced by the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Byzantines, the Saracens and the Normans.