Travel in Sicily
The position of Sicily as a stepping stone of sorts in the center of the Mediterranean Basin has lent it strategic importance throughout history, resulting in an endless procession of settlers and conquerors. A journey through Sicily is a journey through history. History of men and of people, dynasties and dominations that have been following one after the other for more than three thousand years on this island, mounted like jewel in the deepest and most ancestral heart of the Mediterranean Sea.
The “Sicani” are the Sicilian most ancient people. Originally settled in the eastern area, at the beginning of the second millennium B.C. they were pushed towards west by the “Siculi”, Indo-European people whom the name of Sicily is connected with. The Greeks called first the island “Sikelia”, due to the name of its inhabitants, or “Trinakria” for its triangular shape that also inspired the name used by the Romans to refer to Sicily: “Triquetra”.
During its history Sicily has been ruled by 13 different dominations:
The Greeks landed on the Sicilian east coast, where they built colonies such as Catania, Siracusa, Gela and Agrigento.
The Roman subjected the Greek colonies and the Cartagine’s ones, with the Phoenician wars. Sicily became an important province of the Roman Empire for its fundamental value in politic and economic matters.
The vandal domination subjected Sicily until 476, when Odoacre became the king of Italy. The island passed to the Gothics’ hand and Teodorico il Grande was the successor of the king of the Eruli in the kingdom of Italy (495).
In 827 the Muslim landed at Mazara del Vallo and this was the first step towards the complete conquest of Sicily. In 831 the city of Palermo fell, in 865 Siracusa fell too, and shortly after the Bizantine’s strongholds shared the same destiny. The emirate’s organization had its centre in Palermo, which became the new capital in place of Siracusa: the new city, with its three hundred mosques was in competition with the big cities both of the East and of the West. It’ s sure that, especially in the West side of the island, there was a real “arabizzazione” that made changes that we can see even today in the toponyms and in the agriculture, particularly regarding the irrigation’s techniques and the gardens’ management.
After this period there came the Norman who made out of Sicily a Western country again, the Angevins domination that wasn’t welcome very well from Sicilians who didn’t adapt to the new lords’ arrogance. In the seventeenth century the economic situation in the Spanish Sicily got worse because the famines made the countries to be deserted and the hunger spread up . Layer upon layer, each domination has left on this land precious signs if its stay, making Sicily much more than an island: a continent.
The Portal
This portale as all those of the Skipvacanze circuit is aimed at informing all those who are going to travel or to make a vacation in Sicily, with a simple and fast navigation it will be possible to find all the required information such as lodgings, museums, monuments, Parks and Natural Reserves and why not, a little bit of history to come to know better this island that has given birth to many illustrious personages in art and literature. Special pages from which you will be able to search the whole portal will guide you to the discovery of this region.