The Rough Guide to Sicily 7 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

500 Pages·2008·23.75 MB·English

by  Rough Guides, Robert Andrews, Jules Brown

THE ROUGH GUIDE to
Sicily
ROUGHGUIDES
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I SBN 978-1-85828-437-8
5 2 0 9 9
9 7 8 1 8 5 8 2 8 4 3 7 8
The Rough Guide to
Sicily
written and researched by
Robert Andrews and Jules Brown
NEW YORK • LONDON • DELHI
www.roughguides.com
Contents

Colour section 1 Contexts 421
Introduction ............................. 05 Sicily’s histor y ........................ 423
Where to go ............................. 08 The Mafia in Sicily ................. . 437
When to go .............................. 12 Sicilian Baroque .................... . 443
Things not to miss ................... 14 Books .................................... 448
Films ...................................... 455
Basics 25
Language 457
Getting there............................ 27
Getting aroun d......................... 32 Italian ..................................... 4 59
Accommodatio n....................... 37 Some tips .............................. 459
Food and drink ........................ 40 A language guide .................. . 460
Sports and outdoor activities... 44 Menu reader .......................... 464
Travelling with children ............. 45 Glossaries .............................. 471
Travel essentials ...................... 46
Travel store 473
Guide 55
1 Palermo and around............ 57 Small print & Index 477
2 The Tyrrhenian coast......... 119
3 The Aeolian Islands........... 151
4 The northern Ionian Food and wine in Sicily
coast............................... 185 colour section
5 Catania, Etna and following p.184
around ........................... . 215
6 Siracusa and the
southeast ........................ 243 Festivals and events
7 The interior........................ 287 colour section
8 The south coast ................ 323 following p.408
9 Trápani and the west......... 357
3
왗왗 Palace of the Normans, Palermo 왗 Riserva Naturale dello Zíngaro
| CONTENTS |
4
| INTRODUCTION | WHERE TO GO | WHEN TO GO
Introduction to
Sicily
At the centre of the Mediterranean but on the periphery
of Europe, the island of Sicily is a distinct entity from
the rest of Italy. A mere 3km from the mainland across
the Straits of Messina, it’s much further away in
appearance, feel and culture. A hybrid Sicilian dialect
is still widely spoken, and many place names are tinged
with the Arabic that was once in wide use on the island.
The food is noticeably different, too: spicier and with
more emphasis on fish, fruit and vegetables in the daily
diet than in the north. The flora also echoes the shift
south – oranges, lemons, olives, almonds and palms
are ubiquitous. Above all, though, it’s the nature of day-
to-day living that separates Sicily from the rest of Italy
– experienced outdoors with an operatic exuberance in
markets, piazzas and alleys, and reflected in the unique
festivals, ceremonies and processions that take place
throughout the year.
The people certainl y have a se parate quality,
seeing themselves as Sicilians frst and Italians
a very frm second. The island’s strate gic
importance meant it was held by some of the
western world’s richest civilizations, among
them the Gree ks, Romans, Arabs, Normans
and Spaniards. While be queathing many fne
monuments, that made Sicily the subject of countless foreign wars, and
left it with little economic in dependence. Centuries of oppression
have bred insularit y and resentment, and the island was probably 5
the most reluctantly unifed Italian region, with Sicilians almost
| INTRODUCTION | WHERE TO GO | WHEN TO GO
Fact file
• Sicily is the largest and one
of the most densely populated
islands in the Mediterranean,
with extensive areas of
mountains in the north and
east, the highest being Mount
Etna (3323m) – Europe’s
largest active volcano. Apart
from Etna’s sporadic eruptions,
Sicily is also prone to seismic
upheavals – massive earth-
quakes destroyed Messina in
1908, and rocked the western
part of the island in 1966.
• Sicily has a semi-
autonomous status within the
Italian republic, with its own
parliament and president,
and limited legislative powers
in such areas as tourism,
transport, industry and the
environment. There is no
separatist movement to
speak of, though suspicion of
instinctively sus picious of the
central government runs deep.
intentions of Rome. Even today,
• Compared to north Italy,
relations with the mainland are often
the economy has remained
relatively underdeveloped. strained. For man y Sicilians, their
Though there are pockets place in the modern Italian state is
of oil-refining and chemical- illustrated every time they look at a
industrial activity, Sicily is
map to see the island bein g kicked
mainly agricultural, devoted to
– the perpetual football.
the cultivation of wheat, barley,
corn (maize), olives, citrus fruit, And Sicilians do have a point. There’s
almonds, wine grapes and much that remains unchanged since
some cotton. Tuna and sardine Unifcation in the nineteenth century,
fishing are also important,
and what modernization t here is
while the last thirty years or so
has brought associated ills. Pockets
have seen tourism playing an
increasingly crucial role. of the island have been disfgured
• The population – mainly by bleak construction projects and
concentrated in the two main unsightly industr y, and despite Sicily’s
cities of Palermo and Catania, limited political autonomy, little has
on the northern and eastern
really been done to tac kle t he more
coasts – is something over five
6 deep-rooted problems: emi gration
million.
(both to the mainland and abroad) is
왔 Piazza Duomo, Cefalù
| INTRODUCTION | WHERE TO GO | WHEN TO GO
still high, poverty seemingly endemic, and there’s an almost feudal attitude
to business and commerce. Both European and central government aid
continues to pour in, but much has been siphoned of by organized
crime, which, in the west o f the island at least, is sti ll wi despread. For
visitors, however, these matters rarely impinge upon their experience.
Mafa activity, for example – almost a byword for Sicilian life when
viewed from abroad – is usually an in- house afair, with little or no
consequence for travellers.
First-time visitors and regular returnees alike all remark on the island’s
astonishingly all-encompassing appeal. Its dramatic landscapes range
from a mountainous interior and rugged coastlines to remote outl ying
islands and the volcanic foothills of Mount Etna. Sicily’s diverse history,
Catacombs, caves and holes in the ground
Sicily is home to some of the world’s creepiest tourist destinations,
in the form of its catacombs and caves, used as burial places fo r
thousands of years and accessible to anyone with a flashlight and a
strong nerve. The oldest, the rock-cut tombs o f the great necropolis
at Pantálica, were first used in the thirteenth century BC. Anothe r
huge swathe of tombs is on view below the Greek temples at
Agrigento, while catacombs riddle the ground in the city of Siracusa.
But for sheer hands-in-the-air horror, there’s no beating the infamous
preserved bodies that line the catacombs of Palermo’s Convento
dei Cappuccini, or the smaller-scale show in the little village o f
Sávoca, near Taormina. Bodies were placed here as late as the
nineteenth centur y, and the locals used to pa y daily visits, o ften
standing in the adjacent niches to accustom themselves to the idea o f
the great ever-a fter.
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| INTRODUCTION | WHERE TO GO | WHEN TO GO
meanwhile, has left it with an amazing abundance of archeological
remains and arc hitectura l marve ls. The is land was an important
power-base during the Hellenistic period, and its Greek relics, especially,
are superb, standing comparison with any ruins in Greece itself. The
Arab and Norman e lements o f Sici lian history are vivi dly mani fest on
the west and nort h coasts, w hile Baroque arc hitecture s hows its face in
the elegantly restrained cities of the southeast. And if the history leaves
you cold, you cou ld simply come – as many do – for the food, the sun,
the sea and the beaches. The coasta l sett lements soa k up most of the
summer-holiday trade, either at fashionable resorts or simple fshing
villages fronted by long swathes o f san d, though a number of ofshore
islands – some quite remote – o fer a rea l chance to escape the crowds.
Where to go
et in a wide bay at the foot of a fertile valley, the capital,
Palermo, is among Ital y’s most visuall y strikin g cities, boastin g
some of the island’s fnest churches, markets, museums and
Srestaurants. It gets hot and stu fy here in summer, though,
8 which makes escapes out of the cit y all the more tem pting: to the
fashionable beach at Mondello, the sanctuary on Monte Pellegrino or to see
왔 Lípari, Aeolian Islands
| INTRODUCTION | WHERE TO GO | WHEN TO GO