5 curiosities about Sicily

Suspended between Europe and Africa, between East and West, Sicily is one of Italy’s most beautiful regions and is famous for many reasons, from nature to art, from culture to history, not forgetting of course the great wealth of food and wine. But it is also a land full of fascinating curiosities that only a few know and that are worth knowing. Let’s discover together 5 of the most interesting curiosities about Sicily.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean

Everyone knows Sicily and dreams of visiting it at least once in their life. But few people know that, with its 25,711 km² (roughly equal to the entire surface area of all the Greek islands), it is the largest island in the Mediterranean (followed by Sardinia and Cyprus), the seventh largest in Europe and the 45th largest in the world, as well as the largest region in Italy. It is washed by three seas (to the north by the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the west and south by the Sicilian Sea, to the east by the Ionian Sea) and includes the archipelagos of the Aeolian, Egadi and Pelagie Islands, as well as the islands of Ustica and Pantelleria.

The Sicilian flag is one of the oldest in the world

The Sicilian flag is the fourth oldest flag in the world. Its historical origins date back to the 13th century. It was first used in the anti-French revolt of the Sicilian Vespers, which broke out in Palermo on 30 March 1282. And it consists of a two-tone yellow and red drape with the region’s coat of arms in the centre, composed of the union of two different symbols: the Triskelion, which looks like a depiction of a mythological being with three legs; and the Gorgoneion, or the head of the Gorgon, whose hair is a snake intertwined with ears of wheat. As for the colours, they symbolise the union during the revolution of the Vespers against the Angevins of the municipalities of Palermo (yellow) and Corleone (red).

Sicily is among the regions in Italy with the highest number of Unesco sites

Not everyone knows this, but Sicily is one of the Italian regions with the largest number of Unesco heritage sites (sites considered of unique and irreplaceable value to humanity from a cultural, artistic, archaeological, environmental or landscape point of view). There are seven of them: Syracuse and the Rock Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, the Aeolian Islands, Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedrals of Cefalù and Monreale, the Val di Noto and finally Mount Etna. These sites offer an enormous kaleidoscope of experiences capable of arousing unique emotions.

Jazz has Sicilian origins

It is true that jazz was born and took shape with the emergence of the black minority in American society, but it is equally true that its spread was due to a musician of Sicilian origin. It was 26 February 1917 when Nick La Rocca together with the Original Dixieland Jass Band (later Jazz) recorded the first ever record in the history of jazz, which sold one and a half million copies within a few months. His parents had set sail like so many other migrants in the late 19th and early 20th century from a small town in the province of Trapani, Salaparuta, for New Orleans.

The sonnet was invented by a Sicilian

The sonnet is a poetic composition of lyrical, burlesque or satirical character, consisting of fourteen lines with rhymes arranged according to well-defined patterns. Tradition attributes its invention, around the middle of the 13th century, to Giacomo da Lentini (also known as Iacopo da Lentini, Jacopo da Lentini or ‘Il Notaro’), founder of the so-called Scuola Poetica Siciliana, which is said to have been inspired by the stanza di canzone. 22 sonnets, written between 1233 and 1241, have been attributed to him.