SICILY

In the heart of the Mediterranean, crossroads of civilizations for three thousand years of uninterrupted historySicily is much more than an island: it is a miniature continent, a synthesis of all that humanity has ever created that is most beautiful, most complex, and most intense. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, and Bourbons have left an extraordinarily dense cultural legacy on the land, in the stones, and in the flavors of Sicily. It is the land of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, of Syracuse with its still-functioning Greek theater, of Etna that smokes, creates, and destroys, of Arab and Norman Palermo, of Selinunte and Segesta amidst golden horizons. It is cannoli and arancina, coffee granita with brioche, the black of Nero d'Avola and the white of Zibibbo, the orange blossoms of lemons, and the lampare fishing boats that shine at night on the catch.

Beaches and islands

Sicilian beaches are among the most varied and beautiful in the Mediterranean. The Scala dei Turchi beach in Agrigento—a white marl cliff that slopes in steps to the sea—is one of the most photographed places in Italy. San Vito Lo Capo, with its fine white sand beach, turquoise waters, and couscous festival, is comparable to the Caribbean. Mondello, the beach of Palermo's residents, is elegant and nestled between limestone promontories. The beaches of Cefalù, with its Norman fortress dominating the town; the salt pans of Trapani and Marsala with their windmills and pink pools; Cala Rossa beach in Favignana in the Aegadian archipelago; The Aeolian Islands—Stromboli with its active volcano, Vulcano with its fumaroles, Lipari, Panarea, Salina green with capers and Malvasia—and the Pelagie Islands with Lampedusa and its Rabbit Beach, repeatedly voted the most beautiful in the world, form an island system of unparalleled richness.

Landscapes

Mount Etna, at 3.357 meters above sea level, is Europe's highest active volcano. Its dark lava mass and snow-capped peak dominate eastern Sicily. Its summit craters, black lava flows on its flanks, lava-built villages like Zafferana and Nicolosi, and high-altitude vineyards, where Etna Rosso and Etna Bianco are grown from Nerello Mascalese and Carricante grapes on extraordinarily fertile volcanic soils, make Etna one of Italy's most unique landscapes. The Zingaro Nature Reserve in the Trapani area, Sicily's first marine park, is a paradise of hidden coves, Mediterranean scrub, and marine life. The Ispica Caves and the Val di Noto—with its eight Baroque towns rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake, all UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the grain fiefdoms of inland Sicily where the cereal-growing civilization has left behind farmhouses and barns, and the Foce del Platani Nature Reserve complete an area of ​​inexhaustible charm.