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Coordinates: 37°38′33″N, 14°11′34″E

Sicily
Geography
Status	Autonomous region
Capital	Palermo
President	Salvatore Cuffaro (UDC-CdL)
Provinces	Agrigento Caltanissetta Catania Enna Messina Palermo Ragusa Syracuse Trapani
Area	25,708 km²
- Ranked	1st (8.5 %)
Population (2006 est.)
- Total	5,017,212
- Ranked	4th (8.5 %)
- Density	195/km²

Sicily (Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy in Europe. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest surface area with 25,708 km² and currently five million inhabitants. It is also the largest island entity in the Mediterranean Sea, though several much smaller islands surrounding it are also considered part of Sicily.

Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes.^[1] The area was highly regarded as part of Magna Graecia, with Cicero describing Siracusa as the greatest and most beautiful city of all Ancient Greece.^[2]

Although today it is a region, it was once a fully fledged country of its own as the Kingdom of Sicily, ruled from Palermo; this also incorporated parts of Southern Italy for some time and Malta. It later became a part of the Two Sicilies under the Bourbons, which was actually centered in Naples rather than Sicily. Since that time the risorgimento has occurred and Sicily has been a fully fledged part of Italy.

Sicily is considered to be highly rich in its own unique culture, especially in regards to the arts, cuisine, architecture and even language. The Sicilian economy is largely based in agriculture (famously orange and lemon orchards), this same rural countryside has attracted significant tourism in the modern age as its natural beauty is highly regarded.^[3] Sicily also holds importance for archeological and ancient sites such as the Necropolis of Pantalica.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Ancient tribes 1.2 Greek and Roman period 1.3 Early Middle Ages 1.4 Kingdom of Sicily 1.5 Italian unification 2 Geography 3 Transport 3.1 Automobile 3.2 Railways 3.3 Air 3.4 Metro 3.5 Sea 4 Culture 4.1 Flag 4.2 Arts 4.3 Cuisine 4.4 Language 4.5 Sports 5 People 5.1 Noted Sicilians 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

Main article: History of Sicily

The original inhabitants of Sicily were three defined groups of the Ancient peoples of Italy. The most prominent and by far the earliest of which was the Sicani, who according to Thucydides arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia).^[4][5] Important historical evidence has been discovered in the form of cave drawings by the Sicani, dated from the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, around 8000 BC.^[6]

The Elymians were the next tribe to join the Sicanians on Sicily, they are thought to be from the Aegean.^[7] Although there is no evidence of any wars between the tribes, when the Elymians settled in the north-west corner of the island, the Sicanians moved across eastwards. From mainland Italy, thought to originally have been Ligures from Liguria came the Sicels in 1200 BC; forcing the Sicanians to move back across Sicily settling in the middle of the island.^[6]

Main articles: Magna Graecia and Ancient Rome

Around 750 BC, the Greeks began to colonize Sicily, establishing many important settlements. The most important colony was Syracuse; other significant ones were Akragas, Gela, Himera, Selinunte, and Zancle. The native Sicani and Sicel peoples absorbed themselves into Hellenic culture with relative ease. The area was part of Magna Graecia along with the rest of Southern Italy, which the Greeks had also colonized.

Sicily was very fertile and the introduction of olives and grape vines flurished, creating a great deal of profitable trading;^[8] a significant part of Greek culture on the island was that of Greek religion and many temples were built all over Sicily, such as the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento.^[9] Politics on the island was intertwined with that of Greece; Syracuse became desired by the Athenians, who during Peloponnesian War set out on the Sicilian Expedition. Syracuse gained Sparta and Corinth as allies, as a result the Athenian army and ships were destroyed, with most of the survivors being sold into slavery.^[10]

While Greek Syracuse controlled much of the island there were a few Carthageian colonies in the far west of Sicily, the two began to clash and the Sicilian Wars took place.^[11] Greece began to make peace with the Roman Republic in 262 BC and the Romans sought to annex Sicily as its empire's first province; Rome intervened in the form of the First Punic War crushing Carthage, this meant that by 242 BC Sicily had become the first Roman province outside of the Italian Peninsula.^[11] The Second Punic War, in which Archimedes was killed, saw Carthage trying to take Sicily from the Roman Empire. They failed and this time Rome was even more unrelenting in the annihilation of the invaders; during 210 BC the Roman consul M. Valerian, told the Roman Senate that "no Carthaginian remains in Sicily".^[12]

Sicily served a level of high importance for the Romans as it acted as the empire's granary, it was divided into two quaestorships in the form of Syracuse to the east and Lilybaeum to the west.^[13] Although under Augustus some attempt was made to introduce the Latin language to the island, Sicily was allowed to remain largely Greek in a cultural sense, rather than a complete cultural Romanisation.^[13] When Verres became governor of Sicily, the once prosperous and contented people were put into sharp decline, in 70 BC noted figure Cicero condemned the misgovernment of Verres in his oration In Verrem.^[14]

The religion of Christianity first appeared in Sicily during the years following 200 AD, between this time and 313 AD when Constantine finally lifted the prohibition, a significant number of Sicilians became martyrs such as Agatha, Christina, Lucy, Euplius and many more.^[15] Christianity grew rapidly in Sicily during the next two centuries, the period of history where Sicily was a Roman province lasted for around 700 years in total.^[15]

Main articles: Byzantine Empire and Emirate of Sicily

As the Roman Empire was falling apart, a Germanic tribe known as the Vandals took Sicily in 440 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric. The Vandals had already invaded parts of Roman France and Spain, inserting themselves as an important power in western Europe.^[16] However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions to another East Germanic tribe in the form of the Goths.^[16] The Ostrogothic conquest of Sicily (and Italy as a whole) under Theodoric the Great began in 488; although the Goths were Germanic, Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government and allowed freedom of religion.^[17]

The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Sicily was the first part of Italy to be taken under general Belisarius who was commissioned by Eastern Emperor Justinian I.^[18] Sicily was used as a base for the Byzantines to conquer the rest of Italy, with Naples, Rome, Milan and the Ostrogoth capital Ravenna falling within five years.^[19] However, a new Ostrogoth king Totila, drove down the Italian peninsula, plundering and conquering Sicily in 550. Totila, in turn, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Taginae by the Byzantine general Narses in 552.^[19]

Byzantine Emperor Constans II decided to move from the capital Constantinople to Syracuse in Sicily during 660, the following year he launched an assault from Sicily against the Lombard Duchy of Benevento, which then occupied most of Southern Italy.^[20] The rumours that the capital of the empire was to be moved to Syracuse, along with small raids probably cost Constans his life as he was assassinated in 668.^[20] His son Constantine IV succeeded him, a brief usurpation in Sicily by Mezezius being quickly suppressed by the new emperor. Contemporary accounts report that the Greek language was widely spoken on the island during this period.^[21]

In 826, Euphemius the commander of the Byzantine fleet of Sicily forced a nun to marry him. Emperor Michael II caught wind of the matter and ordered that general Constantine end the marriage and cut off Euphemius' nose. Euphemius rose up, killed Constantine and then occupied Syracuse; he in turn was defeated and drove out to North Africa.^[22] He offered rule of Sicily over to Ziyadat Allah the Aghlabid Emir of Tunisia in return for a place as a general and safety; an Islamic army of Arabs, Berbers, Spaniards, Cretans and Persians was sent.^[22] The conquest was a see-saw affair, they met much resistance and had internal struggles amongst themselves, it took over one hundred years for the conquest of Byzantine Sicily to be completed with Syracuse holding out for a long time, Taormina fell in 902 and all of the island was conquered by 965.^[22]

Throughout this reign, continued revolts by Byzantine Sicilians happened especially in the east and part of the lands were even re-occupied before being quashed. Agricultural items such as oranges, lemons, pistachio and sugar cane were brought to Sicily,^[16] the native Christians were allowed freedom of religion but had to pay an extra tax to their rulers. However, the Emirate of Sicily began to fragment as inner-dynasty related quarrels took place between the Muslim regime.^[22] By the 11th century mainland southern Italian powers were hiring ferocious Norman merecenaries, who were Christian descendants of the Vikings; it was the Normans under Roger I who freed Sicily from the Muslims.^[22] After taking Apulia and Calabria, he occupied Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger Guiscard and his men defeated the Muslims at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely in Norman control by 1091.^[23]

Main articles: Kingdom of Sicily and List of monarchs of Sicily

Palermo continued on as the capital under the Normans. Roger's son, Roger II of Sicily, was ultimately able to raise the status of the island, along with his holds of Malta and Southern Italy to a kingdom in 1130.^[24][23] During this period the Kingdom of Sicily was prosperous and politically powerful, becoming one of the wealthiest states in all of Europe; even wealthier than England.^[25] Significantly, immigrants from Northern Italy and Campania arrived during this period and linguistically the island became Latinised, in terms of church it would become completely Roman Catholic, previously under the Byzantines it had been more Eastern Christian.^[26]

After a century the Norman Hauteville dynasty died out, the last direct descendent and heir of Roger; Constance married Emperor Henry VI.^[27] This eventually led to the crown of Sicily been passed on to the Hohenstaufen Dynasty who were Germanic peoples from Swabia. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy, led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning Angevin Dynasty duke Charles I as the king of both Sicily and Naples.^[27]

Strong opposition of the French officialdom due to mistreatment and taxation saw the local peoples of Sicily rise up, leading in 1282 to an insurrection known as the War of the Sicilian Vespers, which eventually saw almost the entire French population on the island killed.^[27] During the war the Sicilians turned to Peter III of the Kingdom of Aragon for support after rejection from the Pope; Peter gained control of Sicily from the French though the French retained control of the Kingdom of Naples, wars between the two continued for a long time after until the peace of Caltabellotta in 1302; which saw Frederick III recognised as king of the Isle of Sicily, while Charles II was recognised as the king of Naples by Pope Boniface VIII.^[27] 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.^[8]

The Spanish Inquisition in 1492 saw Ferdinand I decreeing the explusion of every single Jew from Sicily.^[27] The island was hit by two very serious earthquakes in the east in both 1542 and 1693, just a few years before the latter earthquake the island was struck by a ferocious plague.^[27] There were revolts during the 17th century, but these were quelled with significant force especially the revolts of Palermo and Messina.^[8] The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 saw Sicily assigned to the House of Savoy, however this period of rule lasted only seven years as it was exchanged for the island of Sardinia with Emperor Charles VI of the Austrian Habsburg Dynasty.^[28]

While the Austrians were concerned with the War of the Polish Succession, a Bourbon prince, Charles from Spain was able to conquer Sicily and Naples.^[29] At first Sicily was able to remain as an independent kingdom under personal union, while the Bourbons ruled over both from Naples. However the advent of Napoleon's First French Empire saw Naples taken at the Battle of Campo Tenese and Bonapartist Kings of Naples were instated. Ferdinand III the Bourbon was forced to retreat to Sicily which he was still in complete control of with the help of British naval protection.^[30] Following this Sicily joined the Napoleonic Wars, after the wars were won Sicily and Naples formally merged as the Two Sicilies under the Bourbons. Major revolutionary movements occurred in 1820 and 1848 against the Bourbon government with Sicily seeking independence; the second of which, the 1848 revolution was successful and resulted in a sixteen month period of independence for Sicily, until the armed forces of the Bourbons regained control by May 1849.^[31]

After the Expedition of the Thousand led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sicily became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860 as part of the risorgimento.^[32] The conquest started at Marsala and was finally completed with the Siege of Geata where the final Bourbons were expelled and Garibaldi announced his dictatorship in the name of Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia. An anti-Savoy revolt pushing for Sicilian independance happened in 1866 at Palermo, the Italian reaction was a brutal quelling within a week.^[33][32] The Sicilian (and the wider mezzogiorno) economy collapsed, which led to an unprecedented wave of emigration.^[32] Organisations of workers and peasants known as the Fasci Siciliani, who were leftist and separatist groups rose and caused the Italian government to impose martial law again in 1894.^[34][35]

The Mafia, a loose confederation of organised crime networks, grew in influence in the late 19th century; the Fascist regime began suppressing them in the 1920s with some success.^[32] There was an allied invasion of Sicily during World War II starting on July 10, 1943, the invasion of Sicily was one of the causes of the July 25 crisis; in general the Allied victors were warmly embraced by the Sicilian population. ^[32] Italy became a Republic in 1946 and as part of the Constitution of Italy, Sicily was one of the five regions given special status as an autonomous region.^[36] Both the partial Italian land reform and special funding from the Italian government's Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Fund for the South) from 1950 to 1984, helped the Sicilian economy improve.^[37][38]

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. Sicily has been noted for two millennia as a grain-producing territory. Citrons, 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.

Administratively Sicily is divided into nine provinces; Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina, Palermo, Ragusa, Syracuse and Trapani. Also part of various Sicilian provinces are small surrounding islands, including the Aeolian Islands, the Aegadian Islands, Pantelleria, Ustica and the Pelagian Islands.

The island of Sicily is drained by several rivers, most of which flow through the central area and enter the sea at the south of the island. The Salso River flows through parts of Enna and Caltanissetta before entering the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Licata. To the east the Alcantara in the province of Messina, it exits at Giardini-Naxos. The other two main rivers on the island are to the south-west with Belice and Platani.

Sicily and its small surrounding islands are highly significant in the area of volcanology. Mount Etna is the only volcano on mainland Sicily located in the east; with a height of 3,320 m (10,900 ft) it is the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. As well as Etna, there are several non-volcanic mountain ranges in Sicily, Sicani to the west, Eeri in the central era and Iblei in the south-east. Across the north of Sicily there are three other mountains Madonie, Nebrodi and Peloritani.

The Aeolian Islands to the north-east are volcanically significant with Stromboli currently active, also in the Tyrrhenian Sea are the three dormant volcanos of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari. Off the Southern coast of Sicily, the underwater water volcano of Ferdinandea, which is part of the larger Empedocles last erupted in 1831. It is located between the coast of Agrigento and the island of Pantelleria (which itself is a dormant volcano), on the Phlegraean Fields of the Strait of Sicily.

Main article: Transport in Sicily

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

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 being 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.^[39]

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.

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.

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

Main article: Flag of Sicily

The regional flag of Sicily, recognized since January 2000,^[40] 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.

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.

Main article: Cuisine of Sicily

Sicily is sometimes nicknamed God’s Kitchen because of its rich cuisine.^[41] 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.^[42]

• List of dishes unique to Sicily

Main article: Sicilian language

Many Sicilians are bilingual in Italian and Sicilian, an entirely separate Romance language which is not derived from Italian and has a sizeable vocabulary with at least 250,000 words. Some of the words are loan words with slight changes, taking influence from Greek, Catalan, Arabic and Spanish. The Sicilian language is also spoken to some extent in Calabria and Apulia, it had a significant influence on the Maltese language. In the modern age as Italian is taught in schools and is the language of the media, especially in some of the urban areas Sicilian is now a secondary language amongst much of the youth.

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 Sicilian School, 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 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".^[43] It is in this language that appeared the first sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini himself.

There is also a couple of less common, unofficial languages spoken on the island. In around five small Palermitan villages, Arbëreshë dialect of the Albanian language has been spoken since a wave of refugees settled there in the 15th century; these people are predominantly Byzantine Catholics and chant Greek at local Byzantine liturgy. There are also several areas where dialects of the Lombard language of the Gallo-Italic family are spoken. Much of these two groups of people are tri-lingual, being able to also speak Italian and Sicilian.

The most well known and popular sport on the island of Sicily is that of football, which was introduced to Sicily in the late 1800s under the influence of the English. Some of the oldest football clubs in all of Italy are Sicilian, the three most successful are Palermo, Messina and Catania who have all at some point played in Serie A, which is one of the most prestigious leagues in the world. To date no Sicilian side has ever won Serie A, however football is deeply imbeded in local culture, all over Sicily each town has its own representive team.^[44]

Palermo and Catania have a heated rivalry and compete in the Sicilian derby together, to date Palermo are the only Sicilian side to have played on the European stage, where they entered into the UEFA Cup. The most noted Sicilian footballer is Salvatore Schillaci who won the Golden Boot at the 1990 FIFA World Cup with Italy.^[44] Other noted Sicilian players include Giuseppe Furino, Pietro Anastasi, Francesco Coco, Christian Riganò and Roberto Galia.^[44] There have also been some noted managers from the island, such as Carmelo Di Bella and Franco Scoglio.

Although football is by far the most popular sport in Sicily, the island also has participants in other fields. Amatori Catania compete in the top Italian national rugby union league called Super 10, they have even participated at European level in the European Challenge Cup. Competing in the basketball variation of Serie A is Orlandina Basket from Capo d'Orlando in the province of Messina, the sport has a reasonable following. Various other sports which are played to some extent includes volleyball, handball and water polo.

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,^{[45][46][47][48][49]} 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.^[50][51][52] However, other research has failed to detect any such division.^[53][47] 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.^{[46][54][55][56][57][58]}

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.

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

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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• Sicilian people
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• Mount Etna
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• (Italian) Sicily Region — Official website

Geographic locale

v • d • e Europe | Italy | Sicily (Sicilia) Agrigento | Caltanissetta | Catania | Enna | Messina | Palermo | Ragusa | Syracuse (Siracusa) | Trapani v • d • e Non-sovereign territories of Europe Dependent territories and autonomous regions Adjara (Georgia) · Akrotiri and Dhekelia (UK) · Åland (Finland) · Azores (Portugal) · Canary Islands1 (Spain) · Ceuta1 (Spain) · Crimea (Ukraine) · Faroe Islands (Denmark) · Gagauzia (Moldova) · Gibraltar (UK) · Greenland1 (Denmark) · Guernsey (UK) · Jersey (UK) · Madeira1 (Portugal) · Man, Isle of (UK) · Melilla1 (Spain) · Mount Athos (Greece) · Nakhchivan1 (Azerbaijan) · Sardinia (Italy) · Sicily (Italy) · Unrecognized republics, territories or regions Abkhazia (Georgia) · Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan)1 · South Ossetia (Georgia) · Transnistria (Moldova) · Northern Cyprus (Cyprus)1, 2 Administered by the United Nations Kosovo (Serbia) 1 Entirely on another continent but having sociopolitical connections with Europe. 2 Recognized only by Turkey. v • d • 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/Südtirol · Tuscany · Umbria · Veneto

en:சிசிலி