Smart Guide Italy: Italian Islands: Smart Guide Italy, #23

By Alexei Cohen

Smart Guide Italy is packed with advice and tips that will help newcomers and veteran travelers get the most from their visit to Italy. Along with background information to all major cities and monuments readers will discover great places to eat, sleep and enjoy the dolce vita.

Smart Guide is an independent digital travel publisher with 25 guides to all of Italy's cities and regions. Each title in the series provides insights to the most important monuments and useful information for eating, drinking, and having a good time in Italy. Smart Guide also offers an online accommodation service that allows travelers to enjoy local hospitality, lower their CO2 impact and save.

Other Guides in the Smart Guide series include:
Cities & Regions:
Rome & Lazio / Florence & Tuscany / Genova & Liguria / Turin, Piedmont & Aosta / Milan & Lombardy / Trentino-Alto Adige / Venice & Veneto / Bologna & Emilia Romagna / Le Marche / Umbria / Naples & Campania / Abruzzo & Molise / Puglia / Basilicata & Clabria / Sardinia

Multiple Regions:
Northern Italy / Central Italy / Southern Italy / Italy

Cities:
Northern Italian Cities / Central Italian Cities / Southern Italian Cities / Grand Tour: Rome, Florence, Venice & Naples

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexei Cohen
• Release date: Apr 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301122035

Alexei Cohen

I fell in love with Italy while watching the movie La Strada in the basement of my university library. Since then I have met and married an Italian, written and edited several guides and enjoyed a lot of pasta, wine and gelato. I live with my family on the outskirts of Rome and cultivate my passion for Italy a little more everyday. Moon Rome, Florence & Venice is my latest book and a result of months of exploration. I look forward to sharing what I have discovered and meeting travelers in Rome to swap stories over a cappuccino.

Book preview

FOREWORD

Visiting all of Italy’s islands is a monumental undertaking and one that even ambitious travelers consider with some trepidation. If the desire persists however it requires time and above all great energy to actually complete. Fortunately it’s also one of the most rewarding journeys one could embark on and provides a perspective of Italy that is impossible to get on the mainland.

Even the less gung-ho who settle on a limited number of islands will find their efforts worth while. The most natural islands to combine in a visit are Sicily and Sardinia, which could be explored in two weeks or fully enjoyed in three or four. Sicily could easily be mistaken for a country. Its history, gastronomy, culture and even its language are unique and unlike anything else you’ll find on the mainland. This guide explores the sights, sounds and flavors that make Sicily special. It includes a historical overview, details about the main destinations, important local events, places to eat and sleep, practical information and directions for getting around the island. In short everything you need for making your trip a success.

Sardinia is a summer paradise for thousands of vacationers who flock to its beaches every summer. But Italy’s second largest island has a lot more to offer than sun and sand, although those are pretty good reasons to go. Curious visitors will find the remains of a native civilization unlike any other in Europe, a mountainous interior reminiscent of the American southwest and historic trains that provide a unique way to discover this incredible island.

This guide also covers smaller islands in Tuscany, Campania and Puglia that are also worth visiting and a must for anyone bent on seeing all of Italy's islands. If you haven’t already found a place to stay you may want to browse our accommodation options. Smart Guide provides hundreds of discounted bed & breakfast, farmhouse and small hotel offers throughout the islands. It’s a cozy and convenient way to meet locals, reduce your carbon footprint

and save.

Enjoy the journey!

Alexei Cohen

Series Editor

INTRODUCING SICILY

Sicily doesn’t feel like Italy. Step off the plane, train, or boat, and it’s clear you’re somewhere else. The air smells sweeter, the sun shines brighter, and the sea is bluer. Early Greek sailors must have thanked their gods for landing them here. The only other thing you could ask for is an active volcano, some stunning archipelagos, and enough fertile soil to intoxicate an empire.

The biggest island in the Mediterranean has those things, too—and before all roads led to Rome, many boats were anchoring here. The civilizations that disembarked over the centuries spread themselves around the island and blended into and out of each other both peacefully and violently. The cultural enigma that emerged is an inheritance that’s not easy to untangle.

Across the island, history has left its stamp from—the temples in Segesta and Agrigento to the Baroque facades of Ragusa and the mosaics of Villa Imperiale. Cultures are so intertwined that locals have lost track of their blood type and mainland Italian ears are at a loss to understand the meaning of entire sentences.

Palermo, with its multiple Euro-Afro-Asian personality, is the pinnacle of this exchange. A walk in the city’s markets or a careful gaze at church domes are vivid reminders that globalization started long ago. The wrinkled women selling cucumbers, teenagers hawking pirated CDs, and butchers displaying cuts of beef would be more at home in a Middle Eastern souk than in any suburban shopping mall.

The difference is also evident on Sicilian tables. The island is home to more calories than any other region in Italy. Couscous competes with pasta on menus and dishes are spicier than what Venetian or Tuscan tongues are used to. Fruits and vegetables have tropical dimensions and if you don’t taste at least one orange (season permitting), one lemon granita, and one dessert from Modica, your taste buds will regret it. Honey has been used since the Greeks arrived and is combined with almonds, pistachios, and cacao. Cannoli may be renowned but every town has its own unique recipe and some, like Marsala, even have their own wine.

Fortunately there are unlimited ways to work off those calories. Hiking to the top of a volcano or climbing to a Greek amphitheater are great fat-burners and the cobalt sea is always glistening invitingly. Hills and mountains prevail, with the highest running along the northern coast towards Mount Etna, which humbles everything else. Thirteen percent of Sicily is protected parkland and the Aeolians and Etna are UNESCO World Heritage Sites for a reason.

Although the past is present in Sicily, it’s also fading. Old-timers lining the Syracuse shorefront can testify to that. Some traditions have been lost or are reproduced only for annual festivities. The brightly painted horse-drawn carriages common in Palermo 50 years ago have nearly all disappeared and puppetry that entertained a pre-cinematic public has suffered a sharp decline. Few Sicilians complain that the salt flats have closed or that tuna fishing isn’t what it once was. Today agriculture, heavy industry, and especially tourism represent the future of an island unlike any other.

History

An island as big as Sicily doesn’t go unnoticed for long. For early seafaring civilizations it was a convenient stop in the center of the Mediterranean with deep harbors and potential trade. Greeks colonizers first landed in Sicily in a.d. 800. They found the island inhabited by Sicani and Siculi tribes and eventually expelled their Carthaginian rivals.

By the 5th century a.d., they reached the height of their success and Syracuse rivaled Athens in beauty and wealth. The Romans put an end to all that and after the First Punic war in a.d. 241 gained complete control of the island. After the empire disintegrated there were several waves of barbaric invasions and it wasn’t until the Arabs arrived in the 9th century that civilization returned.

The Norman invasion that followed continued the island’s golden age and lasted until Charles of Anjou was dethroned in favor of Aragonese nobility who united the island’s fortunes with the Bourbons of Napoles. Garibaldi and his 1,000 followers ushered in the modern age in 1860 when Sicily was incorporated within the new Italian state.

The Italian Mafia

Sicily has always been associated with the mafia. In some ways the Italian mafia was a French revolution in disguise and the struggle for a better life. It started out 150 years ago in a region that was desperately poor, governed harshly, and discarded by nobility. Although ideals proved self-serving in the end, the name translates to hostility to the state. As things got more organized that meant extortion, property speculation, and drug trafficking.

Modern Italian governments have spent millions trying to eradicate organized crime and to some extent their efforts have paid off. Tommaso Buscetta and Toto Rina are behind bars and the mafia keeps a low profile these days. You won’t see anything unusually fishy going down in the back streets of Catania or Messina. There’s more violence on screen than in Corleone and Sicilians prefer you remember them for their hospitality rather than the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.

TOP STOPS

Palermo Street Markets

Don’t miss the vibrant Ballarò and La Vucciria street markets. Anthropologists would have a field day analyzing these animated markets in the center of Palermo. It’s not so much the variety of articles on display as the colorful buyers and sellers that is endearing.

Monreale

Seven kilometers south of Palermo in the town of Monreale is the most impressive cathedral ever built by the Normans. There are more mosaics inside the Duomo than anywhere else on the island, and attached to the church is a cloister with 228 columns that was once a royal palace.

Stromboli

Stromboli would be worth visiting even if there wasn’t an active volcano dominating the small island. Nighttime pyrotechnics occur every 10–15 minutes and a climb to the crater is much more than a photo opportunity.

Taormina Art Festival

Frankly, with a Greek theater overlooking Mount Etna, it doesn’t matter who is playing on stage. Taormina Arte Festival, however, attracts performers who can match the beauty of the surroundings and seeing Bob Dylan sing Blowing in the Wind here gives the song an entirely new meaning.

Mount Etna

The best views of the highest and most active volcano in Europe are from onboard the Circumetnea Railway that travels around the entire volcano. A journey in one of the vintage diesel cars reveals a complete range of landscapes.

Valle dei Templi

This 4,500-acre park offers some of the best preserved ancient Greek temples anywhere, including the Concordia, which has remained virtually intact for over 2,400 years.

Erice

Erice is the Sicilian version of a hill town and can be reached by a scenic cableway. From the top, all of western Sicily is visible and along the streets, pasticeria display the pastries that the town is famous for and keep gourmets coming back.

PLANNING

Although it’s perfectly feasible to break up a week in Rome with a weekend in Palermo, Sicily demands more time to be fully appreciated. You can arrive by land, air, or sea to all the major cities but Palermo is the only one where several days can be justified. Then it’s best to rent a car and hit the road or catch a train that skirts the coast.

On the map, Sicily looks big. It is the biggest island in the Mediterranean but getting around is actually quite easy by car and highways are surprisingly smooth. The fastest stretches are those along the northern coast from Palermo to the Corno D’Oro and down to Catania. Rail surrounds nearly the entire island, but most lines only have a single track, which can make service slow.

If you have more time you can plan a journey to one of the archipelagos off the coast of Sicily. The three Egadi Islands, 20 minutes from Trapani, can be a day or overnight detour on the way to Agrigento. The Aeolians are farther from the coast and shouldn’t be rushed. With seven islands to choose from, you can island hop or take the more relaxing option of lying low in one of the comfortable hotels.

Sicily’s interior is quite scenic and can be crossed relatively quickly. It takes less than three hours to travel from Agrigento to Cefalù, both of which should be avoided during the summer when parking becomes impossible and crowds disturbing. Spring is the best time to visit; once the April rains have passed, the entire island starts to blossom in red, yellow, and blue. Most of the cities are compact with sights concentrated around the historic center. Palermo has a well-deserved reputation for heavy traffic but once outside the center jams are rare.

Most of Sicily is safe but you should be careful after dark in the larger towns and avoid any unlit streets in Catania or the waterfront of Messina, where civility may be lacking. Pursesnatchers generally work in pairs. One drives the scooter close to the victim while the other does the snatching.

PALERMO AND THE TYRRHENIAN COAST

Italians talk with their hands and nowhere do they talk louder than Palermo. It’s a dusty town with traces of World War II explosions and roosters crowing in the morning. The historic center could be Barcelona or Marrakech. Narrow streets and alleys invite the curious to explore.

Monuments vary in style and there are dozens of noteworthy Norman churches, puppet theaters, and ancient trees. Some sights, like the Duomo, are the result of many layers of history and can only be classified as unique. Quattro Canti marks the center of the historic district where Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele intersect. Neither of these avenues is particularly beautiful and the miniscule sidewalks are where locals play dodge the tourist.

It’s more gratifying to stick to side streets like Via Biscottai or Via Bandiera that run roughly parallel to the Corso during the day. At night these take on a slightly menacing appearance while the avenues remain crowded until 11 p.m.

PALERMO

SIGHTS

Nearly everyone who ruled Palermo has resided inside Palazzo dei Normanni, also known as Palazzo Reale (Piazza Indipendenza, tel. [phone], daily 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m., €7/€8.50). The fortress is not particularly impressive unless you were trying to attack it, in which case you’d find the high walls impregnable. The building lies on the edge of the old town and provides commanding views over the city and port. Contrary to what the name suggests, Byzantines and Arabs built the initial structure.

Normans enlarged the complex and the royal apartments from where they ruled, dined, and slept can be visited. Cappella Palatina was another Norman initiative. The stunning chapel inside the palace demonstrates how receptive the Normans were to outside influences and contains a mixture of Islamic and Norman craftsmanship. It is almost completely covered in mosaics and gold seems to have been the favorite color. Today laws are still being passed inside the palazzo, although now it is the Sicilian Assembly that calls the shots. The extensive royal appartments can also be visited from Friday to Sunday when regional assembly is not in session.

The four red domes are the most obvious sign that S. Giovanni degli Eremiti (Via dei Benedettini, tel. [phone], Mon.–Sat. 9 a.m.–7 p.m. and Sun. 9 a.m.–1 p.m., €6) isn’t an average church. Ruggero II hired Arab architects for the job in 1132 and the building looks more like a mosque than a church. It is one of the best examples of Norman-Arabic architecture in Palermo. The entry fee includes access to the grounds that surround the grey, austere walls and provide a welcome escape from traffic. There’s also a tranquil garden within the adjacent cloister where palms and the bell tower can be admired. If you think this would be a good place to get married, think again; the church was deconsecrated a long time ago. Part of the building is covered in scaffolding and restoration is ongoing.

It’s difficult to classify the Duomo (Piazza della Cattedrale, weekdays March-Oct. 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Nov.-Feb. 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m., weekends 7:30 am.-1:30 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. all year round). There have been countless additions since it was built in 1184 and the overall effect is disorienting to the eye. Geometric patterns recall the