What is Sicily?

Coordinates:

Regione Autonoma Siciliana

Flag of Sicily
Map highlighting the location of Sicilia in Italy
Capital	Palermo
President	Salvatore Cuffaro (UDC-CdL)
Provinces	Agrigento Caltanissetta Catania Enna Messina Palermo Ragusa Syracuse Trapani
Comuni	390
Area	25,708 km
- Ranked	1st (8.5 %)
Population (2006 est.)
- Total	5,017,212
- Ranked	4th (8.5 %)
- Density	195/km

Sicily (Sicilia in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. miles) and five million inhabitants.

Geography

Sicily is directly adjacent to the Italian region of Calabria via the Strait of Messina to the east. The early Roman name for Sicily was Trinacria, alluding to its triangular shape.

The volcano Etna, situated close to Catania, is 3,320 m (10,900 ft) high, making it the tallest active volcano in Europe. It is also one of the world's most active volcanoes.

The Aeolian islands to the north are administratively a part of Sicily, as are the Aegadian Islands and Pantelleria Island to the west, Ustica Island to the north-west, and the Pelagian Islands to the south-west.

Sicily has been noted for two millennia as a grain-producing territory. Oranges, lemons, olives, olive oil, almonds, and wine are among its other agricultural products. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta district became a leading sulfur-producing area in the 19th century but have declined since the 1950s.



Sicily is divided into nine provinces:

• Agrigento
• Caltanissetta
• Catania
• Enna
• Messina
• Palermo
• Ragusa
• Syracuse (Siracusa)
• Trapani

History

Main article: History of Sicily

Natives

The original inhabitants of Sicily, long absorbed into the general population, were tribes known to Greek writers as the Elymians, the Sicani and the Siculi or Sicels. Of these, the last were clearly the latest to arrive on this land and were related to other Italic peoples of southern Italy, such as the Italoi of Calabria, the Oenotrians, Chones, and Leuterni (or Leutarni), the Opicans, and the Ausones. It is possible, however, that the Sicani were originally an Iberian tribe. The Elymi, too, may have distant origins outside of Italy, in the Aegean Sea area.

Ancient Sicily

Main articles: Carthage, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome

In the 8th Century BC, Phoenicians, Punic settlers from Carthage, and Greeks began to colonize Sicily. An important colony was established at Syracuse in 734 BC. Other important Greek colonies were Acragas, Gela, Himera, Selinunte, and Zancle or Messene (modern-day Messina not to be confused with the ancient city of Messene in Messenia, Greece).

Classical Greek civilization included Sicily as part of Magna Graecia and these city states were an important part of it. The scientist Archimedes was from Syracuse and the philosopher Empedocles was from Agrigentum.

Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Greece. In 415 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, Syracuse became an object of Athenian imperialism. The resulting Sicilian Expedition was inconclusive at first, but after Syracuse gained Sparta and Corinth as allies, the events ended in disaster for Athens. The Syracusan fleet destroyed or captured the Athenian ships and the Athenian army was destroyed, with most of the survivors being sold into slavery.



The Punic cities of Sicily had ties to Carthage, which was on the African mainland, not far from the southwest corner of the region, and had its own colonies on Sicily. The Carthaginian city of Palermo was founded in the 8th century BC, named Zis or Sis ("Panormos" to the Greeks). Hundreds of Phoenician and Carthaginian grave sites have been found in necropoli over a large area of Palermo, now built over, south of the Norman palace, where the Norman kings had a vast park. In the far west, Lilybaeum (now Marsala) never was thoroughly Hellenized.

In the First and Second Sicilian Wars, Carthage was in control of all but the eastern part of Sicily, which was dominated by Syracuse.

In the 3rd century BC, the Messanan Crisis motivated Roman Republic to intervene in Sicilian affairs, and led to the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. By the end of war (242 BC), all Sicily was in Roman hands, becoming Rome's first province outside of the Italian peninsula.



During the Second Punic War, initial Carthaginian successes encouraged many of the Sicilian cities to revolt against Roman rule. Rome sent troops to put down the rebellions. Archimedes was killed during the siege of Syracuse. Carthage briefly took control of parts of Sicily, but was eventually driven off. Many Carthaginian sympathizers were killed— in 210 BC the Roman consul M. Valerian told the Roman Senate that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily".

Sicily was a province of the Roman Empire for the next 6 centuries. It was something of a rural backwater, but its grainfields which were a mainstay of the food supply of the city of Rome. The empire made little effort to Romanize the region, which remained largely Greek. During this period, in 70 BC, Cicero condemned the misgovernment of Verres in his oration, In Verrem.

The Barbarian Invasion and Byzantine Reconquest

Main article: Byzantine empire

In 440 AD, Sicily fell to a Barbarian Germanic tribe the Vandals under king Geiseric. The Vandals, now seated in Carthage, invaded and occupied several of the islands in the Western Mediterranean. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to the Goths.^[1]

In 488, Ostrogothic, under Theodoric the Great began the conquest of Italy and Sicily. Most of the Goths setttled in the north, in the south they formed little more than garrisons. Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government and allowed freedom of religion.

In 535, seeing the Ostrogothic position in Italy was now weaker, the Eastern Emperor Justinian of Constantinople commissioned Byzantine general Belisarius to attack the Ostrogoths. Justinian’s reputation owed perhaps less to his own qualities than those to his empress Theodora, and two generals, Belisarius and Narses.^[2]

Belisarius quickly captured Sicily and then crossed into Italy where he captured Naples and Rome in 536 and then marched north, taking Mediolanum (Milan) and the Ostrogoth capital of Ravenna in 540. But a new Ostrogothic king, Totila, drove down the Italian peninsula and then plundered and conquered Sicily in 550. Totila, in turn, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Taginae by the Byzantine general, Narses, in 552.

Although the Byzantine campaigns proved successful, in the long term it proved impossible for them to retain control of the old provinces around the Mediterranean and the Byzantines lost them to the Arabs after 50 years of fighting.

In 660, Byzantine Emperor Constans II decided to move from the capital, Constantinople, to Syracuse in Sicily. In 661, Constans launched an assault from Sicily, against the Lombard Duchy of Benevento, which then occupied most of Southern Italy. Rumours that Constans was going to move the capital of the empire to Syracuse were probably fatal for him and he was assassinated in 668. His son Constantine succeeded him as Constantine IV, a brief usurpation in Sicily by Mezezius being quickly suppressed by the new emperor.

Contemporary accounts report that Sicilians spoke Greek or Italo-Greek dialects until at least the 10th century, and in some regions for several more centuries.

Arab Sicily

Main article: Siculo-Arabic

As the power of the Byzantine Empire waned, Sicily was invaded by the Arabs in 652 AD. However, this was a short lived invasion and the Arabs left soon after. Instead, trading arrangements were agreed and Arab merchants established themselves in Sicilian ports. Then, in 827 a Sicilian coup against an unpopular Byzantine governor failed. Euphemius, a wealthy landowner, who overcame the imperial garrison in Siracusa, declared himself Emperor and invited the Aghlabid Emir of Tunisia to help him. The response was a fleet of 100 ships and 10,000 troops under the command of Asad ibn al-Furat, which consisted largely of Arabs and Berbers from North Africa and Spanish Muslims.^[3] After resistance at Siracusa, the Arabs gained a foothold in Mazara del Vallo. Palermo fell after a long siege in 831, but Siracusa held out until 878. From 842 to 859 the Arabs captured Messina, Modica, Ragusa and Enna. In 902 Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold, also fell to Arabs and by 965 all of Sicily was under Arab control and Palermo became one of the largest cities in the world.

In succession Sicily was ruled by the Sunni Aghlabid dynasty in Tunisia and the Shiite Fatimids in Egypt. The Byzantines took advantage of temporary discord to occupy the eastern end of the island for several years. After suppressing a revolt, the Fatimid caliph appointed Hassan al-Kalbi (948–964) as Emir of Sicily. He successfully managed to control the Byzantines and founded the Kalbid dynasty. Raids into southern Italy continued under the Kalbids into the 11th century, and in 982 a German army under Otto II was defeated near Crotone in Calabria. With Emir Yusuf al-Kalbi (990–998) a period of steady decline began. Under al-Akhal (1017–1037) the dynastic conflict intensified, with factions within the ruling family allying themselves variously with Byzantium and the Zirids. By the time of Emir Hasan as-Samsam (1040–1053) the island had fragmented into several small fiefdoms. As a virtually independent emirate, Sicily played a privileged role as bridge between Africa and Europe. Trade flourished and taxes were low. The tolerant regime allowed subjects to abide by their own laws. Despite freedom of worship, Christians converted to Islam and there were soon hundreds of mosques in Palermo alone.

The Arabs were to completely dominate Sicily for a relatively short period of time, but the changes they brought to the island were far reaching, long lasting and overwhelmingly positive in economic terms, those taxes that were detrimental to agriculture were removed. The Arabs called Saracens at the time, represented a highly developed civilization that was superior in many ways, to the Christian cultures of western Europe and the Mediterranean.^[4] There were many positive features to Arab conquest of Sicily, and their contribution was in the form of improved practices, such as irrigation, science, commerce and the arts.



Their agricultural methods were far more advanced than any found elsewhere. Much of the island's agricultural base that exists to this day consists of plants that were introduced by the Saracens, including oranges,lemons, pistachio and sugar cane.^[5] The Arabs did not conscript the Sicilians into the armies as the Byzantines had and under Arab rule taxes were lower. Approximately 300 words of Arabic origin remain in the Sicilian language, the vast bulk of these are agricultural terms. In the mid 11th century, Sicily was on the verge of entering its most prosperous period in its entire history. Palermo became not only a trading post, but also a centre of a rich, cosmopolitan, civilization. Hundreds of mosques were built, and the elegant Arabic style of architecture was to survive as an influence after Sicily became a Christian country. There was no harsh persecution of Christians by their Moslem conquerors, who nevertheless asserted their social predominance.

In addition to Andalusian Arabs and other Arabs, there were Berbers, Persians, Greeks, Jews, Slavs and Lombards. Western Sicily particularly prospered with Berbers settling in the Agrigento area coupled with Bedouin, Syrians and Egyptian Arabs in Palermo.

A description of Palermo was given by Ibn Hawqual, a Baghdad merchant who visited Sicily in 950. A walled suburb called the Kasr (the palace) is the center of Palermo until today, with the great Friday mosque on the site of the later Roman cathedral. The suburb of Al-Khalisa (Kalsa) contained the Sultan's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices and a private prison. Ibn Hawqual reckoned 7,000 individual butchers trading in 150 shops.

While invaders from the north were soon to bring new systems of government, law and religion, they were to inherit a thriving economy based on trade and efficient agricultural practices. Muslim rule in Sicily slowly came to an end following an invitation by the Emirs of Catania and Siracusa for a Norman invasion. Following the Norman conquest, Arab influence continued to persist creating a hybrid culture on the island that has contributed much to the character of modern Sicily.

Norman-Hohenstaufen period

Main article: Kingdom of Sicily

Muslim rule in Sicily slowly came to an end following an invitation by the Emirs of Catania and Siracusa for a Norman invasion. The Normans, under Count Roger de Hauteville (Altavilla) attacked Sicily, beginning a thirty year struggle against the Arabs. Robert Guiscard, with the help of his younger brother Roger, controlled much of Apulia and Calabria by 1059. In 1060, they made their first attack on the north-eastern tip of Sicily, occupying Messina with approximately 700 knights. Robert was to be frequently detained by unrest in his mainland holdings and this paved the way for Roger to gradually conquer the remainder of the island from the Arabs over a 31 year period (reminiscent of the manner they themselves had conquered the island). In 1068, Roger Guiscard and his men defeated the Arabs at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo in 1072, and the conquest of Sicily was completed by 1091 with the defeat of the last Emir in Noto.

Palermo continued on as the capital under the Normans, as it had been under the Kalbid dynasty. Roger's son, Roger II of Sicily, was ultimately able to raise the status of the island, along with his Southern Italian holdings, to a kingdom in 1130. Roger II reigned until 1154, fashioning a prosperous and politically powerful kingdom which included the islands of Malta and at various times territories along the North African coastline including Libya.



During this period, the Kingdom of Sicily became one of the wealthiest states in Europe, and according to historian John Julius Norwich, Palermo under the Normans became wealthier than the England of its day. The Norman kings relied mostly on the local Arab and Greek population for the more important government and administrative positions. For the most part, Arabic and Greek remained as the language of administration while Norman was the language of the royal court.

The most significant change the Normans were to bring to Sicily was in the areas of religion, language and population. Almost from the moment Roger I controlled much of the island, immigration was encouraged from both Northern Italy and Campania. For the most part, these consisted of Lombards who were Latin speaking and more inclined to support the Western church. With time, Sicily would become overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and a new vulgar Latin idiom would emerge that was distinct to the island.

After only a century, however, the Norman Hauteville dynasty died out and the south German (Swabian) Hohenstaufen dynasty ruled starting in 1194, adopting Palermo as its principal seat from 1220. But local Christian-Muslim conflicts fueled by the Crusades were escalating during this later period, and in 1224, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and grandson of Roger II, expelled the last remaining Muslims from Sicily, temporarily relocating many to a colony in Lucera on the southern mainland, while the rest fled to North Africa.^[6]

Angevin-Aragonese

Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led in 1266 to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, duke of Anjou: opposition to French officialdom and taxation led in 1282 to insurrection (the Sicilian Vespers) and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragón. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the peace of Caltabellotta in 1302. Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives of the kings of Aragon until 1409 and then as part of the Crown of Aragon.

Spanish-Bourbon control

Ruled from 1479 by the kings of Spain, Sicily suffered a ferocious outbreak of plague (1656), followed by a damaging earthquake in the east of the region (1693). Sicily was frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa. Bad periods of rule by the crown of Savoy (1713–1720) and then the Austrian Habsburgs gave way to union (1734) with the Bourbon-ruled kingdom of Naples, first as independent kingdom under personal union, then (1816) as part of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Major revolutionary movements occurred in 1820 and 1848 against the Bourbon denial of constitutional government, seeking an independent status from Naples. The 1848 revolution resulted in a sixteen month period of independence until the armed forces of the Bourbons regained control of Sicily on 15 May 1849.

Italian unification

Sicily became part of Kingdom of Italy in 1860 after the invasion of irregular troops led by Giuseppe Garibaldi as part of the Risorgimento.

The Kingdom of Italy was strongly centralized, and Palermo revolted against it in 1866. Palermo was bombed by the Italian navy, which disembarked on September 22 under the command of Raffaele Cadorna. Italian soldiers summarily executed the civilian insurgents, and regained control of the Sicily.

An extensive guerrilli campaign against the Unionists coninued until 1871 throughout southern Italy and Sicily. In reaction, the Italian government imposed martial law. The Italian army summarily executed thousands of people, made tens of thousands prisoners, destroyed villages, and deported people.

The Sicilian economy collapsed, which led to an unprecedented wave of emigration. The Italian government imposed martial law again in 1894, in response to labour agitation by the radical Fasci Siciliani.

Organised crime networks, commonly known as the mafia, grew in influence in the late 19th century. The Fascist regime began suppressing them in the 1920s, with some success.

During World War II, Sicily was invaded by the Allies on the night of July 10, 1943 by an allied armada of 2,590 vessels. Mafia was an established enemy of the Fascist regime and was able to offer the Allied occupants a steady grip on the island. The invasion of Sicily was one of the causes of the July 25 crisis.

Sicily became an autonomous region in 1946. Both the partial Italian land reform of 1950–1962 and special funding from the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, the Italian government's indemnification Fund for the South (1950–1984) helped the Sicilian economy.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Sicily

Automobile

Most of Sicily's motorways (autostrade) run through the northern portion of the island. The most important ones are A19 Palermo-Catania, A20 Palermo-Messina, A29 Palermo-Mazara del Vallo and the toll road A18 Messina-Catania. Much of the motorway network is elevated by columns due to the mountainous terrain.

The road network in the south of the country consists largely of well-maintained.

Most of the city's population live along the A20.

Railways

Sicily has a network of services linking most major cities and towns operated by the national railway company, Trenitalia. There are also through services to Naples and Rome with trains are loaded onto ferries for the crossing from the mainland. There is also a private line around the base of Mount Etna, the Ferrovia Circumetnea.

There were plans to link the railway to the mainland via the world's longest suspension bridge, the Strait of Messina Bridge, construction of which was expected to start in 2006. In October of 2006 the Italian Parliament scrapped the plan due to lack of popular support, particularly amongst Sicilians.^[7]

Air

Sicily is served by national and international flights, mostly to European locations, to and from Palermo International Airport and the substantially busier Catania-Fontanarossa Airport. There are also minor national airports in Trapani and on the small islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa.

Metro

The city of Palermo has an urban metropolitan service, handled by Trenitalia, with eleven stations, including an airport stop. Catania also has an underground rail system, which completes the circuit on the circumetnea narrow gauge railway.

Sea

A daily service operates by Virtu Ferries, between Malta and Sicily, stopping at Pozzallo or Catania

Flag

Main article: Flag of Sicily

The regional flag of Sicily, recognized since January 2000,^[8] is also the historical one of the island since 1282. It is divided diagonally yellow over red, with the trinacria symbol in the center. "Trinacria" literally means "3 points" and it most probably is a solar symbol even though lately, it has been considered representative of the three points of the island. The head shown on the Sicilian trinacria is the face of Medusa. The trinacria symbol is used also by other regions like the Isle of Man.

Arts

Sicily is well known as a region of art: many poets and writers were born here, starting from the Sicilian School in the early 13th century, which inspired much subsequent Italian poetry and created the first Italian standard. The most famous, however, are Luigi Pirandello, Giovanni Verga, Salvatore Quasimodo, Gesualdo Bufalino. Other Sicilian artists include the composers Sigismondo d'India, Girolamo Arrigo, Salvatore Sciarrino, Giovanni Sollima (from Palermo), Alessandro Scarlatti (from Trapani or Palermo), Vincenzo Bellini, Giovanni Pacini, Francesco Paolo Frontini, Alfredo Sangiorgi, Aldo Clementi, Roberto Carnevale (from Catania).

Noto, Ragusa and particularly Acireale contain some of Italy's best examples of Baroque architecture, carved in the local red sandstone. Caltagirone is renowned for its decorative ceramics. Palermo is also a major center of Italian opera. Its Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy and the third largest in the world, seating 1,400.

Sicily is also home to two prominent folk art traditions, both of which draw heavily on the island's Norman influence. A Sicilian wood cart, or Carretto Siciliano, is painted with intricate decorations of scenes from the Norman romantic poems, such as The Song of Roland. The same tales are told in traditional puppet theatres which feature hand-made wooden marionettes, especially in Acireale, the capital of Sicilian puppets.

Sicily is the setting for many classic Italian films such as Visconti's La Terra Trema (1948)and Il Gattopardo (1963), Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano(1962) and Antonioni's L'avventura (1960).

The 1988 film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, was about life in a Sicilian town following the Second World War. It is also the setting for Michael Radford's Il Postino (1994) starring Massimo Troisi.

Academy Award winning film director Frank Capra was born in Bisacquino.

Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Sicily

Sicily is sometimes nicknamed God’s Kitchen because of its rich cuisine.^[9] The island has had a variety of culinary influences because of its location. The influence of the Greeks can be found here: Dionysus has been said to have introduced wine to the region. The Romans later conquered the island, introducing lavish dishes based upon goose. The Byzantines introduced sweet and sour flavors while during the 10th and 11th centuries the Arabs brought apricots, sugar, citrus, sweet melons, rice, saffron, raisins, nutmeg, clove, pepper, and cinnamon which are all still seen in the cuisine today. The Normans and Hohenstaufen introduced a fondness for meat dishes. The Spanish introduced numerous items from the New World including cocoa, maize, turkey, tomatoes and other produce items. Tuna, sea bream, sea bass, cuttlefish, swordfish and other seafood available off the coastline is an integral part of the modern cuisine.^[10]

• List of dishes unique to Sicily

Sports

Sicily currently has two football teams playing in Serie A. Serie A is the top division of the Italian Football League, the highest football league in Italy. Serie A is widely regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world along with Spanish La Liga and English Premier League.

Unione Sportiva Città di Palermo is a team based in Palermo. The club became one of the most prominent in Italy. It has obtained a UEFA Cup place in each of the past three seasons, narrowly missing UEFA Champions League qualification in 2007. The official team colours are pink and black, giving rise to the nickname rosanero; another less common nickname is aquile, referring to the eagle present in both the official club logo and the coat of arms of the city of Palermo. US Città di Palermo plays its home games at Stadio Renzo Barbera, formerly known as La Favorita; as of 2007 the stadium has a capacity of 37,000 people. It was originally built in 1932, but was renovated in the late 1980s and served as a venue for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Football Club Messina Peloro is a team based in Messina, originally founded in 1900. The club has spent most of its history in the lower Italian football leagues. However, since 2004 they have been competing in Serie A. Messina have appeared in the Italy's top league Serie A, for a total of five seasons during their history. The highest ever position they have finished is 7th, which happened during the 2004–2005 season. At the end of the 2006–2007 season, Messina were relegated to Serie B.

Calcio Catania is a team based in Catania. The club has spent much of its history in Serie B, gaining promotion to Italy's top league; Serie A five times. They currently compete in Serie A after climbing back up the football pyramid. The club has achieved moderate success in the top league, the highest position ever reached by the club is 8th in Serie A twice, both during the early 1960s.

A famous Sicilian football player is Salvatore Schillaci commonly referred to by his nickname Totò. He was the Golden Boot winner for the 1990 FIFA World Cup after leading the tournament with six goals. The 1990 World Cup is still well remembered today by Italian football fans as the Notti Magiche di Totò Schillaci (magical nights of Totò Schillaci), even though the Italian national team did not win the World Cup at home and came in 3rd place after beating England 2-1, Totò scored the second goal from a penalty shot.

Mafia

Main article: Mafia

Originating during the mid 19th century, the Mafia served as protection for the large orange and lemon estates surrounding the city of Palermo.^[11] From this, the Mafia began to spread its roots among the landowners and politicians of Sicily. Forming strong links with the government (it is more than likely that many politicians were members or collaborators) the Mafia gained significant power.

During the Fascist period in Italy, Cesare Mori, prefect of Palermo, used special powers granted to him to prosecute the Mafia, forcing many Mafiosi to flee abroad or risk being jailed. Many of the Mafiosi who escaped fled to the United States, among them Joseph Bonanno, nicknamed Joe Bananas, who came to dominate the U.S. branch of the Mafia. However, when Mori started to persecute the Mafiosi involved in the Fascist hierarchy, he was removed, and the Fascist authorities proclaimed that the Mafia had been defeated. Despite his assault on their brethren, Mussolini had his fans in the New York Mafia, notably Vito Genovese.

The United States used the Italian connection of the American Mafiosi during the invasion of Italy and Sicily in 1943. Lucky Luciano and other members of Mafia, who had been imprisoned during this time in the U.S., provided information for US military intelligence, which used Luciano's influence to ease the way for advancing American troops.[5]

Some mafia analysts, such as the Catanese author Alfio Caruso, argue that the U.S. Office of Strategic Services deliberately allowed the mafia to recover its social and economic position as the "anti-State" in Sicily and that the U.S.-mafia alliance forged in 1943 was the true turning point of mafia history and the foundation of its subsequent 60-year career. Others, such as the Palermitan historian Francesco Renda, have argued that there was no such alliance. Rather, the mafia exploited the chaos of post-fascist Sicily to reconquer its social base. The OSS indeed, in its 1944 "Report on the Problem of Mafia" by the agent W. E. Scotten, pointed to the signs of mafia resurgence and warned of its perils for social order and economic progress.

According to many Sicilians, the real name of the Mafia is Cosa Nostra, meaning 'our thing'. Many have claimed, as did the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta, that the word mafia was a literary creation. Other Mafia defectors, such as Antonio Rigotto, Antonino Calderone and Salvatore Contorno, said the same thing. According to them, the real thing was "cosa nostra". To men of honor belonging to the organization, there is no need to name it. Mafiosi introduce known members to other known members as belonging to "cosa nostra" (our thing) or "la stessa cosa" (the same thing). Only the outside world needs a name to describe it, hence the capitalized version of the words: Cosa Nostra.

Cosa Nostra was first used, in the beginning of the 1960s, in the United States by Joseph Valachi, a mafioso turned state witness, during the hearings of the McClellan Commission. At the time, it was understood as a proper name, fostered by the FBI and disseminated by the media. The designation gained wide popularity and almost replaced the term Mafia. The FBI even added an article to the term, calling it 'La Cosa Nostra'. In Italy the article 'la' is never used when the term refers to the Mafia; commonly "la nostra cosa" is used when meaning "our thing" in general contexts. Sicily and Sicilian mafia traditions were graphically described in The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

During the early 1980s, the Second Mafia War had raged as Corleonesi boss Salvatore Riina decimated other Mafia Families, resulting in hundreds of murders, including several high-profile authority figures such as Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, head of counter-terrorism who had arrested Red Brigades founders in 1974. His murder has been linked to Aldo Moro's assassination and Gladio's strategy of tension. The increasing public revulsion at such killings gave the necessary momentum for Magistrates like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino to try to deliver a serious blow to the far-reaching criminal organization on the island, but both were killed by the Mafia in 1992. Palermo airport is now also known by the name Falcone-Borsellino Airport.

People

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. Modern methods of genetic testing enable us to see which have had the greatest demographic impact. Several studies show strong ties between Sicily, mainland southern Italy and Greece,^{[12][13][14][15][16]} suggesting that the Siculi, Elymi and Greek colonizations were the most important.

It has been proposed that a genetic boundary divides Sicily into two regions, reflecting the distribution of Siculi and Greek settlements in the east, and Sicani/Elymi, Phoenician/Arab and Norman settlements in the west.^[17][18][19] However, other research has failed to detect any such division.^[20]<ref name="rickards_1998" /> No data exist on the contribution of Normans, but a number of studies hint that North African and Middle Eastern gene flow was limited by the physical barrier of the Mediterranean Sea and resulting cultural differentiation.<ref name="vona_1998" />^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Sicily's population is approximately 5 million, and there are an additional 10 million people of Sicilian descent around the world, mostly in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Australia and the EU countries. The island today, like all of western Europe, is home to growing communities of immigrants, including Tunisians, Moroccans, Nigerians, Indians, Romanians, Russians, Chinese and Gypsies (Roma) from the Balkans.

Language

Main article: Sicilian language

Many Sicilians are bilingual in Italian and Sicilian, a separate Romance language, with Greek, Arabic, Catalan and Spanish influence. It is important to note that Sicilian is not a derivative of Italian. Although thought by some to be a dialect, Sicilianu is a distinct language, with a rich history and a sizeable vocabulary (at least 250,000 words), due to the influence of the different conquerors of, and settlers to, this land.

The Sicilian language was an early influence in the development of the first Italian standard, although its use remained confined to an intellectual élite. This was a literary language in Sicily created under the auspices of Frederick II and his court of notaries, or Magna Curia, which, headed by Giacomo da Lentini also gave birth to the Scuola Siciliana, widely inspired by troubadour literature. Its linguistic and poetic heritage was later assimilated into the Florentine by Dante Alighieri, the father of modern Italian who, in his De Vulgari Eloquentia (DVE claims that "In effect this vernacular seems to deserve a higher praise than the others, since all the poetry written by Italians can be called Sicilian" (DVE, I, xii). It is in this language that appeared the first sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini himself.

Sicilian dialects are also spoken in the southern and central sections of the Italian regions Calabria (Calabrese) and Puglia (Salentino); and had a significant influence on the Maltese Language. Malta was originally part of the Kingdom of Sicily (in its various forms) until it was granted to the Knights of Malta. Even then Sicilian culture and language had a considerable impact on Maltese giving the language much of its vocabulary. With the predominance of Italian in Italian schools, the media, etc., Sicilian is no longer the first language of many Sicilians. Indeed, in urban centers in particular, one is more likely to hear standard Italian spoken rather than Sicilian, especially among the young.

Sicilian generally uses the word ending [u] for singular masculine nouns and adjectives, and [a] for feminine. The plural is usually [i] for both masculine and feminine. By contrast, in Italian masculine nouns and adjectives that end in [o] in the singular pass to [i] in the plural, while the feminine counterparts pass from [a] to [e].

The "-LL-" sound (in words of Latin origin, for example) manifests itself in Sicilian as a voiced retroflex plosive with the tip of the tongue curled up and back, a sound which is not part of Standard Italian. In Sicilian, this sound is written simply as "-dd-" although the sound itself is not [d] but rather [ɖ]. For example, the Italian word bello is beddu in Sicilian.

In numerous villages, the Arbëreshë dialect of the Albanian language has been spoken since a wave of refugees settled there in the 15th century. While it is spoken within the household, Italian is the official language and modern Greek is chanted in the local Byzantine liturgy. There are also several areas where dialects of the Lombard language of the Gallo-Italic family are spoken. Much of this population is also tri-lingual, being able to also speak one of the Sicilian dialects as well.

List of famous Sicilians

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• Stesichorus (c. 640 – 555 BCE), poet
• Empedocles (c. 490 – 430 BCE), scientist and philosopher
• Gorgias (c. 483 – 375 BCE), philosopher
• Dion (408–354 BCE), politician and friend of Plato
• Timaeus (c. 345 – 250 BCE), historian
• Theocritus (c. 310 – 250 BCE), poet

• Archimedes (c. 287 – 212 BCE), scientist
• Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 – 30 BCE), historian
• Pope Leo II, Pope from 682 to 683
• Jawhar as-Siqilli (911–922) Military leader, founder of Cairo
• Giacomo da Lentini (1210 – 1260), poet
• Guido Delle Colonne (1215 – 1290), poet
• Giovanni Aurispa (1376 – 1459), anthropologist
• Antonello da Messina (1430 – 1479), painter
• Giovanni Luca Barberi (1452 – 1520), historian
• Antonello Gagini (1478 – 1536), sculptor
• Francesco Maurolico (1494 – 1575), mathematician
• Tommaso Fazello (1498 – 1570), historian
• Antonio Veneziano (1543 – 1593), poet
• Sigismondo d'India (1582 – 1629), composer
• Pietro Novelli (1603 – 1647), painter
• Giacomo Serpotta (1656 – 1732), sculptor
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725), composer
• Filippo Juvarra (1678 – 1736), architect
• Giovanni Battista Vaccarini (1702 – 1768), architect
• Giovanni Meli (1740 – 1815), poet
• Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (1743 – 1795), traveller and occultist
• Ruggero Settimo (1776 – 1863), politician
• Niccolò Cacciatore (1780 – 1841), astronomer

• Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835), opera composer
• Giuseppe La Farina (1815 – 1863), politician
• Francesco Crispi (1819 – 1901), politician
• Giovan Battista Filippo Basile (1825 – 1891), architect
• Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826 – 1910), chemist
• Luigi Capuana (1839 – 1915), writer
• Giovanni Verga (1840 – 1922), novelist
• Giuseppe Pitrè (1841 – 1916), historian
• Giuseppe Sergi (1841 – 1936), anthropologist

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• Ernesto Basile (1857 – 1932), architect
• Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (1860 – 1952), politician
• Vito Cascio Ferro (1862 – 1943), mafioso
• Luigi Pirandello (1867 – 1936), dramatist, Nobel laureate
• Luigi Sturzo (1871 – 1959), politician

• Giovanni Gentile (1875 – 1944), philosopher
• Josephine Terranova (1889 – 1981), accused murderess
• Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896 – 1957), writer, poet
• Frank Capra (1897 – 1991), actor, director
• Julius Evola (1898 – 1974), political philosopher
• Ignazio Buttitta (1899 – 1997), poet
• Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968), poet, Nobel laureate
• Ugo La Malfa (1903 – 1979), politician
• Giorgio La Pira (1904 – 1977), politician
• Ettore Majorana (1906 – ?), scientist
• Vitaliano Brancati (1907 – 1954), writer
• Renato Guttuso (1912 – 1987), painter
• Gesualdo Bufalino (1920 – 1996), writer
• Leonardo Sciascia (1921 – 1989), writer and politician
• Rocco Chinnici (1925 – 1983), judge
• Giuseppe Fava (1925 – 1984), writer and dramatist
• Andrea Camilleri (born 1925), novelist
• Bernardo Provenzano (born 1933), mafioso
• Nino Vaccarella (born 1933), racecar driver
• Lando Buzzanca (born 1938), actor
• Giovanni Falcone (1939 – 1992), judge
• Paolo Borsellino (1940 – 1992), judge
• Salvatore Adamo (born 1943), singer
• Ferdinando Scianna (born 1943), photographer
• Franco Battiato (born 1945), musician, filmmaker
• Salvatore Sciarrino (born 1947), composer
• Giuseppe Tornatore (born 1956), filmmaker
• Domenico Dolce (born 1958), fashion designer
• Angelo d'Arrigo (1961 – 2006), aviator
• Salvatore Antibo (born 1962), runner
• Anna Kanakis (born 1962), model, actress
• Salvatore Schillaci (born 1964), football player
• Maria Grazia Cucinotta (born 1969), actress
• Carmen Consoli (born 1974), musician
• Giuseppe Gibilisco (born 1979), pole vaulter

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Historical monarchs of Sicily

Main article: Monarchs of Naples and Sicily

• Roger I of Sicily, Count of Sicily 1072 – 1101
• Simon, Count of Sicily, 1101 – 1105
• Adelaide del Vasto, Regent of Sicily 1101 – 1112, mother of Simon and Roger II
• Roger II of Sicily, Count of Sicily 1113 – 1130, King of Sicily 1130 – 1154
• William I of Sicily, King of Sicily 1154 – 1166
• William II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1166 – 1189
• Tancred of Sicily, King of Sicily 1189 – 1194
• William III of Sicily, King of Sicily 1194
• Constance of Sicily, Queen of Sicily 1194 – 1198 and mother of Frederick II
• Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily (Frederick I of Sicily) 1194 – 1250
• Conrad I of Sicily (and Conrad IV of Germany), King of Sicily 1250 – 1254
• Conradin, King of Sicily 1254 – 1258
• Manfred of Sicily, King of Sicily 1258 – 1266
• Frederick III (II) of Sicily, King of Sicily 1296 – 1337
• Peter II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1337 – 1342
• Louis of Sicily, King of Sicily 1342 – 1355
• Frederick III the Simple, King of Sicily 1355 – 1377
• Mary of Sicily, Queen of Sicily 1377 – 1402
• Martin I of Sicily, King of Sicily 1390 – 1409
• Martin II of Sicily, King of Sicily 1409 – 1410
• Victor Amadeus I of Sicily, King of Sicily 1713 – 1718

Quotes

• "Without Sicily, Italy leaves no image in the soul. Sicily is the key to everything." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

See also

• Sicilian people
• Sicilian language
• Sicilian School
• Sicilian music
• Sicilian-Americans
• List of Sicilian-Americans
• Sicilian-Jews
• Monarchs of Naples and Sicily
• Two Sicilies
• Sicilian defence
• Mount Etna
• Mafia
• Normans
• Triskelion
• Acireale
• Sicilian revolt

Notes

References

• "Il Duecento", in: Antologia della poesia italiana, ed. Cesare Segre and Carso Ossola. Torino, Einaudi, 1997. ISBN 88-06-15341-2
• Bruno Migliorini, Storia della lingua italiana. Firenze, Sansoni, 1987. ISBN 88-383-1343-1
• Dante Alighieri, De Vulgari Eloquentia (bilingual, Latin-Italian edition). Milano, garzanti, 1991. ISBN 88-11-36442-6

External links

• Sicily Region — Official website (Italian)
• Ferrovia Circumetnea

Images

• Sicily Gallery with pictures of Etna and Stromboli

Geographic locale

•  • [ e] Europe | Italy | Sicily (Sicilia) Agrigento | Caltanissetta | Catania | Enna | Messina | Palermo | Ragusa | Syracuse (Siracusa) | Trapani  •  • [ e] Regions of Italy Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Sdtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto