Day 1 – Introduction

Siciliano, no italiano. That's how every Sicilian feels. Sicily may be part of the republic of Italy, but it also has extensive autonomy. The Strait of Messina is only two miles wide, but the difference between the island and the mainland is huge. Sicily is an archaic island. Hard life has not spared the Sicilians. They were exploited by all their occupiers over the centuries. Here lie the roods of Europe  and because of its strategic location, numerous superpowers have fought over the island in the past. The Greeks and Romans fought against the Carthaginians for possession of the island, the Arabs founded a thriving culture on the island, the Normans submitted it to the Christian faith. Cultural influences were absorbed but the island never gave up its individuality.

‘Sicily, the environment, the climate, the Sicilian landscape. These are forces that know no middle ground between luscious softness and wretched  wasteland'. This is how Tomasi de Lampedusa described his homeland in the famous novel 'The Tiger Cat'.

When the soil was completely extracted, it forced many Sicilians to emigrate to the richer northern Italy on the one hand, but also to the United States on the other. These harsh economic and social conditions were an ideal breeding ground for the mafia (the cosa nostra – our cause). Unfortunately, this is mainly what Sicily is known for. But Sicily is more than that. It is Italy at its most Italian, the Mediterranean at its most beautiful, classical antiquity at its oldest, food at its best and the forces of nature at their fiercest.

Time to discover this for yourself.