Begin your Sicilian odyssey in its capital city - Palermo. Nebrodi Holiday Flats Spectacularly situated along a wide sweep of bay at the foot of Monte Pellegrino, Palermo was the wealthiest and most magnificent city in Europe in the 12th century. Hotels Giardini Naxos Today Palermo has an air of faded grandeur and an unrivalled display of Norman art and architecture and Baroque churches. Nebrodi Holiday Flats. Stroll along the Via Roma and Via Maqueda in the heart of the old town and get a sense of what Palermo is all about. Self catering accommodation Giarre Don’t miss the magnificent 12th century Norman cathedral at Monreale, 8 kilometres southwest of the city. Marsala Villa Rentals The inside of the cathedral is covered in breathtakingly glittering mosaics.  

Palermo was founded by Phoenicians who sailed there from their native Carthage. Booking Hotels Nebrodi The Greeks colonized the whole island, leaving some of the most beautiful and best-preserved temples they ever built at Agrigento, Selinunte and Segesta. Nebrodi Holiday Flats. Around those glorious sites they planted Sicily's first olive trees and grape vines. Calendar of events in Ragusa Traces of the Roman period in Sicily can be found in the amphitheatres at Taormina and Siracusa, as well as in that city's Christian catacombs. But perhaps Rome's most lasting (and infamous) contribution to the island came in fostering the great land ownerships which eventually impoverished the peasantry and led, many centuries later, to the founding of secret societies aimed at destroying the fabulously wealthy landlords. Nebrodi Holiday Flats. In Palermo, these groups were known as mafia. Booking Hotels Catania

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and occupies a strategic position at the toe of Italy. Nebrodi Holiday Flats The island has long been a magnet for invaders - all of whom have left their mark. Discount hotels Giarre Greek temples, Roman ruins, Norman castles and Byzantine domes. Nebrodi Holiday Flats. Visiting these relics of the past, swimming off the island’s beautiful golden beaches, marvelling at Mt Etna – Europe’s largest live volcano – and sampling first-rate seafood are all part of the Sicilian experience. Nebrodi Holiday Flats. City of Catania. Sicily Tours and Excursions Situated at the mountain slope of Etna and to the center of a fertile lowland cultivated to citrus fruit, it was occupied from the Cartaginesi versus 700 B.C. Taormina villas Then it was under the dominion of Siracusa and conquered from Dionigi and from the Cartaginesi then, finally by the Romans in the 263 B.C. Self catering accommodation Sciacca Subsequently conquered from the Normanni was destroyed in 1693 from a terrible earthquake. Nebrodi Holiday Flats. We find it again today, like commercial heart of the Isle with its splendid and attractive baroque.

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