Re: WC 150K Post Challenge - You Ready?!
To start, a brief history of Sicily and some general information before I get into what I did in Sicily and some other bits.
Size wise, Sicily is just a bit smaller than the state of Massachusetts. You could drive around the perimeter in about 15 hours, if you wanted but don’t see the point of that.
Sicily is thought to be inhabited by humans for at least 12,000 years but there are signs of earlier settlement, approx. 20,000 years.
Now the term melting pot gets used a lot, but I think Sicily deserves this term more than anywhere else. It is literally a historical melting pot and those cultures, relics and food still are a part of Sicily today. Just more modern. Sicily has been ruled by the following, without going into too much detail:
Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Germanic (Vandals and Ostrogoths), Byzantine Empire, Arabs (Muslim Moors), Norman, several Sicilian rulers and eventually part of the Italian unification.
Sicily’s food, culture and history reflect all that. They are, in general, very nice and welcoming people.
We all know about the Mafia and to be honest I truly believe they’re trying get away from that stigma and have moved into more of an acceptance of who and what they are. The Mafia story is a long one from history and hard to shake.
If you’re at all interested in a decent show on Sicily, I highly recommend Sicily Unpacked. It’s a BBC show, easily found on YouTube. It’s three one hour episodes and the hosts are an art expert and an Italian Michelin star chef. It’s pretty good. It focus is on food and art, but they do talk about other things.
We found Sicily to be quite safe. Like anywhere you travel though always be aware of the usual things. The pickpockets, bad areas (though not easy to determine in Sicily) and scams, we basically avoid anyone begging or asking to talk to us.