Ciao Sicily

This month Marty O'Neill takes us to the historic and picturesque island of Sicily.

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A new destination for us this summer! The island of Sicily has a wealth of history and is a sprawling island. It’s actually the biggest island in the Mediterranean. If your geography teacher back in the day referred to Italy as The Boot, then you’ll know Sicily as The Ball next to the toe. It wasn’t just my teacher that said that surely? At Italy’s southern tip lies this magical and surprisingly lush island. We visited recently in the midst of Europe’s second major heatwave of the summer and were pleasantly surprised at how green and colourful the island was. Maybe it’s the volcanic and nutrient rich, fertile soil of Mount Etna on the islands east coast that has something to do with it. Either way, it’s bold, lush and green in places and we felt an instant attraction to the place coming into land. 

The name Sicily comes from the Italian word 'sica', which means 'scythe'. The romans said it was the area most rich in grain. It still looks that way today. 

First rookie mistake is don’t try to see the entire island of Sicily in one trip. You’ll not do it. From east coast to west it will take more than 6 hours. The island even has two major airports you can fly into. We flew into Palermo on the north west coast – the capital city of Sicily and the fifth biggest city in Italy. To give you an idea, most of the churches and places of worship are over 1000 years old. If history is your bag, get a flight booked. A fascinating melting pot of a city, Palermo has nods back to its Lebanese Middle Eastern roots, greek and Roman occupation – even the Viking’s. There’s evidence of human activity here dating back to 14,000 BC.