Sicily

Regione Sicilia

Capital	Palermo
President	Salvatore Cuffaro (UDC-CdL)
Provinces	Agrigento Caltanissetta Catania Enna Messina Palermo Ragusa Syracuse Trapani
Comuni	390
Area	25,708 km²
- Ranked	1st (8.5 %)
Population (2006 est.)  - Total  - Ranked  - Density	5,017,212 4th (8.5 %) 195/km²
Map highlighting the location of Sicilia in Italy

Sicily is an autonomous region of Italy. Also known as Sicilia in Italian, Latin, Sicilian and Spanish, Σικελία in Greek, Sqallija Maltese, it is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 km² and 5 million inhabitants. The Greeks knew Sicily as Trinacria, which refers to its triangular shape. The ancient Siculians, for whom the island was named, are Sicily's first known inhabitants. In 3000 B.C.E. they introduced animal breeding, agriculture, and artisian activities. Later settlers included the Phoenicians, who established trading and construction from the forests. From the eighth to the third century B.C.E. Romans established colonies and further developed agriculture and commerce. Around the time of Christ, Romans harvested the wheat and established granaries. The Romans also further developed commerce, and, as in their other colonies, constructed an excellent road system. In the Middle Ages from the fifth to the fifteen centuries, the economy suffered at first during the Arabic, Goth and Vandal invasions, but once each group settled, the economy advanced, producing such projects as the renovation and fortification of the Port of Palermo. Additional agricultural growth included irrigation, and the planting new crops such as jasmine, citrus, cotton, and others, which remain popular today. Development thrived under the Normans, who built magnificant castles in Monreale and Cefalu. The Swabians introduced large castles and continued the development until the Spanish assumed power. As a colony under Spain's rule in the sixteenth century, Sicily had large farm like feudal estates, but their production rate became low, a tragedy after so much development had occurred during previous settlements. In the modern ages, under the Bourbons in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the center of politics moved from Palermo to Naples. Baroque architecture became prevalent, and many cities and small towns were established. In the 1860 Sicily and its island neighbors were annexed to Italy; however, in 1946 Sicily was granted its own governance. In 1871 the first railroad was constructed, and in the 1950's, the large estates were divided into smaller plots of land for homeowners. The economy developed. In 1957 hydrocarbon was discovered, and several industrial plants to accommodate its development were built.

Geography==

NASA orbital photograph of Sicily

Sicily is directly adjacent to the region of Calabria via the Strait of Messina to the east.

The volcano Etna, situated close to Catania, is 3,320 m (10,900 ft) high, making it the tallest 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 northwest, and the Pelagian Islands to the southwest.

Sicily has been noted for two millennia as a grain-producing territory. Delicious oranges and other fruit trees grow on the coast, while the interior produces olives and wine, and other agricultural products. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts became a leading sulfur-producing areas in the 19th century, however, sulfur production has declined since the 1950s.

Transport

Automobile

Most of Sicily's motorways or (autostrade) run through its northern section. The most noteworthy ones include the A19 Palermo-Catania, A20 Palermo-Messina, A29 Palermo-Mazara del Vallo and the toll road A18 Messina-Catania. Because the topography is mountainous, much of the roadway network is elevated by columns. In southern Sicily, the roadway system consists mainly of well-maintained secondary roads.

Railways

The national railway company, Trenitalia, connects Sicily to Italy. Trains, however, must be loaded onto ferries for the crossing from the mainland. The Stretto di Messina, S.p. A. was scheduled to construct the Strait of Messina Bridge, which would have been the world's longest suspension bridge, in the second half of 2006. The span would have formed the first land link to Italy in history. However, in October of 2006, the Italian Parliament halted the plan due to insufficient support. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,1920199,00.html).

The provinces of Sicily

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

Palermo's urban metropolitan service is managed by Trenitalia. This system has eleven stations, which include an airport stop.

Sea

Virtu Ferries provides daily transportation between Malta and Sicily, and it stops at Pozzallo or Catania

Towns and cities

Sicily's principal cities include the regional capital Palermo, and provincial capitals Catania, Messina, Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), Trapani, Enna, Caltanissetta, Agrigento, Ragusa. Other Sicilian towns include Acireale, Taormina, Giardini Naxos, Piazza Armerina, Bagheria, Partinico, Carini, Alcamo, Vittoria, Caltagirone, Cefalù, Bronte, Marsala, Corleone, Castellammare del Golfo, Calatafimi, Gela, Termini Imerese, Francavilla di Sicilia, Ferla, and Abacaenum (now Tripi).

Flag

The regional flag of Sicily, recognized since January 2000, 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 "three 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

Palermo is the regional capital of Sicily

Landscape with temple ruins on Sicily, Jacob Philipp Hackert, 1778

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.

The 1988 movie Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, was about life in a Sicilian town following the Second World War.

History

The original inhabitants of Sicily, long absorbed into the 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's 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.

Greek temple at Selinunte (temple E, dedicated to Hera, built in the 5th century B.C.E.)

Sicily was colonized by Phoenicians, Punic settlers from Carthage, and by Greeks, starting in the 8th Century B.C.E. The most important colony was established at Syracuse in 734 B.C.E. Other important Greek colonies were Gela, Acragas, Selinunte, Himera, and Zancle or Messene (modern-day Messina, not to be confused with the ancient city of Messene in Messenia, Greece). These city states were an important part of classical Greek civilization, which included Sicily as part of Magna Graecia - both Empedocles and Archimedes were from Sicily. Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Greece itself, leading Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian War.

The Greeks came into conflict with the Punic trading communities with 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. Palermo was a Carthaginian city, founded in the 8th century B.C.E., named Zis or Sis ("Panormos" to the Greeks). Hundreds of Phoenician and Carthaginian grave sites have been found in necropolis 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 415 B.C.E., Syracuse became an object of Athenian imperialism as exemplified in the disastrous events of the Sicilian Expedition, which reignited the cooling Peloponnesian War.

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

The initial success of the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War encouraged many of the Sicilian cities to revolt against Roman rule. Rome sent troops to put down the rebellions (it was during the siege of Syracuse that Archimedes was killed). Carthage briefly took control of parts of Sicily, but in the end was driven off. Many Carthaginian sympathizers were killed— in 210 B.C.E. the Roman consul M. Valerian told the Roman Senate that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily".

For the next 6 centuries, Sicily was a province of the Roman Empire. It was something of a rural backwater, important chiefly for its grainfields, which were a mainstay of the food supply of the city of Rome. The empire did not make much effort to Romanize the region, which remained largely Greek. The most notable event of this period was the notorious misgovernment of Verres, as recorded by Cicero in 70 B.C.E., in his oration, In Verrem.

In 440 C.E. Sicily fell to the Vandal king Geiseric. A few decades later, it came into Ostrogothic hands, where it remained until it was conquered by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 535. But a new Ostrogoth king, Totila, drove down the Italian peninsula and then plundered and conquered Sicily in 550. Totila, in turn, was defeated and killed by the Byzantine general, Narses, in 552. For a brief period (662-668), during Byzantine rule, Syracuse was the imperial capital, until Constans II was assassinated. Sicily was then ruled by the Byzantine Empire until the Muslim Arab conquest of 827-902. It is reported in contemporary accounts that Sicilians spoke Greek or Italo-Greek dialects until at least the 10th century, and in some regions for several more centuries.

File:1154 world map by Moroccan cartographer al-Idrisi for king Roger of Sicily.jpg

High Middle Ages view of earth
Europe and Sicily are featured in the lower right-hand section. (North is at the bottom of the map.)

The cultural diversity and religious tolerance of the period of Muslim rule under the Kalbid dynasty made Palermo the capital city of the Emirate of Sicily. This continued under the Normans who conquered Sicily in 1060-1090 (raising its status to that of a kingdom in 1130). During this period, 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. 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, grandson of Roger II, expelled the last remaining Arabs from Sicily.

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.

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). 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 as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Sicily was the scene of major revolutionary movements in 1820 and 1848 against Bourbon denial of constitutional government. The 1848 revolution resulted in a sixteen month period of independence from the Bourbons before its armed forces took back control of the island on 15 May 1849.

In late 1852, Prince Emanuele Realmuto had set up power in North Central Sicily. Highly educated, the prince established a political system set to bring Sicily's economy to the highest levels in all of Italy. The Prince's life however was shortened by an assassination in 1857. To this day some of his work is still present in the Italian parliament.

Sicily was joined with the other Italian regions in 1860 following the invasion of irregular troops led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and the resultant so called Risorgimento.

In 1866, Palermo revolted against Italy. The city was soon bombed by the Italian navy, which disembarked on September 22 under the command of Raffaele Cadorna. Italian soldiers summarily executed the civilian insurgents, and took possession once again of the island.

A long extensive guerrilla campaign against the unionists (1861-1871) took place throughout southern Italy, and in Sicily, inducing the Italian governments to a ferocious military repression. Ruled under martial law for many years Sicily (and southern Italy) was ravaged by the Italian army that summarily executed hundreds of thousands of people, made tens of thousands prisoners, destroyed villages, and deported people. The Sicilian economy collapsed, leading to an unprecedented wave of emigration. In 1894 labour agitation through the radical Fasci Siciliani led again to the imposition of martial law.

Map of the Allied landings in Sicily on 10 July 1943

The organised crime networks commonly known as the mafia extended their influence in the late 19th century (and many of its operatives also emigrated to other countries, particularly the United States); partly suppressed under the Fascist regime beginning in the 1920s, they recovered following the massive World War II Allied invasion of Sicily on the night of July 10, 1943 when an allied armada of 2,590 vessels freed the then-Nazi Sicily.

An autonomous region from 1946, Sicily benefited to some extent from 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). Sicily returned to the headlines in 1992, however, when the assassination of two anti-mafia magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino triggered a general upheaval in Italian political life.

Mafia

Originating during the mid 19th century, the Mafia served as protection for the large orange and lemon estates surrounding the city of Palermo. 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, who 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 world, tradition, values'. Many have claimed, as did the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta, that the word mafia was a literary creation. Other Mafia defectors, such as Antonino Calderone and Salvatore Contorno, said the same thing. According to them, the real thing was "cosa nostra". To men of honour belonging to the organisation, 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.

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, 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. However, other research has failed to detect any such division. No data exists 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.

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 other 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 from the Balkans.

Language

Many Sicilians are bilingual in both 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 a part of the Kingdom of Sicily (in its various forms) until the late 18th century. 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 Sicilians

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

File:Archimedes.jpg

Archimedes of Syracuse

• Archimedes (c. 287 – 212 B.C.E.), scientist
• Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 – 30 B.C.E.), historian
• Pope Leo II, Pope from 682 to 683
• Jawhar as-Siqilli (911 - 922) Military leader, founder of Cairo
• Cielo d'Alcamo (c. 1200 – 1250), poet
• 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
• Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia (1516 – 1580), physician
• 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
• Domenico Scinà (1765 – 1837), writer
• Ruggero Settimo (1776 – 1863), politician
• Niccolò Cacciatore (1780 – 1841), astronomer
• Giovanni Patricolo (1789 – 1861), painter
• Lionardo Vigo (1799 – 1879), writer

Vincenzo Bellini

• Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835), opera composer
• Filippo Cordova (1811 – 1868), politician
• Giuseppe La Farina (1815 – 1863), politician
• Francesco Crispi (1819 – 1901), politician
• Rosolino Pilo (1820 – 1860), politician and patriot
• Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826 – 1910), chemist
• Emanuele Realmuto (1830 – 1857), Prince
• Giuseppe Sciuti (1834 – 1911), painter
• Ignazio Florio (1839 – 1891), business man
• Luigi Capuana (1839 – 1915), writer
• Giovanni Verga (1840 – 1922), novelist
• Giuseppe Pitrè (1841 – 1916), historian
• Giuseppe Sergi (1841 – 1936), anthropologist
• Benedetto Civiletti (1845 – 1899), sculptor
• Napoleone Colajanni (1847 – 1921), politician
• Emanuele Paternò (1847 – 1935), chemist
• Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (1860 – 1952), politician
• Vito Cascio Ferro (1862 – 1943), mafioso
• Luigi Pirandello (1867 – 1936), dramatist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• Nino Martoglio (1870 – 1921), poet
• Luigi Sturzo (1871 – 1959), politician
• Giovanni Gentile (1875 – 1944), philosopher
• Filadelfo Insolera (1880 – 1955), mathematician and economist
• Antonio Aliotta (1881 – 1964), philosopher
• 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
• Francesco Messina (1900 – 1993), sculptor
• Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 – 1968), poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• Ugo La Malfa (1903 – 1979), politician
• Giorgio La Pira (1904 – 1977), politician
• Vincenzo Impelliteri (1905 – 1991), mayor of New York City from 1950 to 1956
• Ettore Majorana (1906 – ?), scientist
• Vitaliano Brancati (1907 – 1954), writer
• Giovanni Becchina (1909 – 2001), painter
• Raffaele Poidomani (1912 – 1979), writer
• Renato Guttuso (1912 – 1987), painter
• Francesco Condorelli (1912 – 2003), business man
• Federico Cafiero (1914 – 1980), mathematician
• Joe Dimaggio (1914 – 1999), baseball player
• Gesualdo Bufalino (1920 – 1996), writer
• Leonardo Sciascia (1921 – 1989), writer and politician
• Antonino Mancuso Fuoco (1921 – 1996), painter
• Rocco Chinnici (1925 – 1983), judge
• Giuseppe Fava (1925 – 1984), writer and dramatist
• Andrea Camilleri (born 1925), novelist
• Giuseppe Uzzaco (born 1932), painter
• Bernardo Provenzano (born 1933), mafioso
• Nino Vaccarella (born 1933), racecar driver
• Lando Buzzanca (born 1938), actor

File:Falcone.jpg

Giovanni Falcone

• Giovanni Falcone (1939 – 1992), judge
• Paolo Borsellino (1940 – 1992), judge
• Ferdinando Scianna (born 1943), photographer
• Salvatore Adamo (born 1943), singer, migrated to Belgium as child
• Franco Battiato (born 1945), musician, filmmaker
• Pasquale Scimeca (born 1956), filmmaker
• 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
• Roy Paci (born 1969), musician
• Carmen Consoli (born 1974), musician
• Giuseppe Gibilisco (born 1979), pole vaulter

Historical monarchs of 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 (1194 – 1250), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily (Frederick I of Sicily)
• 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

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Sicilia

• Sicilian language
• Sicilian School
• Cuisine of Sicily
• Monarchs of Naples and Sicily
• Two Sicilies
• Mafia
• Normans
• Triskelion
• Sicilian music
• List of Sicilian-Americans
• Acireale

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "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 Portal

• (Italian)(English)Regione Siciliana Tourism official Travel and tourism site of the Sicilian Region, with cultural information. English and Italian.
• (Italian)(English) Almanacco Siciliano (Sicilian Almanac) Piccola Enciclopedia popolare di storia Siciliana di tutti i tempi (A small popular Encyclopedia of Sicilian history)

Maps

• Location, maps and aerial imagery: {{#invoke:Coordinates|coord}}{{#coordinates:37|36|0|N|14|10|0|E|type:isle_region:IT_scale:5000000

| |name= }}

Images

• Image of Sicily
• Sicily Historical Gallery
• Italy Photo Net at TeachItaly.com/foto.htm
• Pictures from all around Sicily

Template:Dependent, autonomous, and other territories of Europe Global regions Europe

Credits

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• Sicily  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Sicily"

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