Experience Sicily

Category: History

  • Pantalica Pleases With History And Natural Beauty

    The Pantalica nature reserve in southeastern Sicily protects a white canyon of limestone that has been cut over centuries by the the Anapo and Calcinara rivers. Featuring lush, green vegetation, waterfalls, fresh water pools, and the river bed, it is recognized as a UNESCO site because of the approximately 5,000 tombs dating back as far…

  • Lookout Tower On The Sea

    Lookout tower, Santa Maria La Scala on the Ionian Sea

  • On Sicily | Margaret Queen of Sicily With Jacqueline Alio

    On Sicily Podcast presents Margaret Queen of Sicily. At 31 years old, Margaret of Navarre was the most powerful woman in Europe and the Mediterranean, and she successfully navigated the Kingdom of Sicily from 1166 to 1171, maintaining the progressive constitutional laws her father-in-law, Roger II, had established. Yet until now, historians barely mention her.

  • A Symbolic Sunset In Agrigento, Sicily

    May 8th and 9th mark the anniversary of two important moments in Sicilian anti-mafia history. In 1978, Giuseppe “Peppino” Impastato, a political activist who vociferously exposed and confronted the mafia, was murdered by the unscrupulous cell in his hometown of Cinisi. And in 1993, just down the street from this temple, pictured (said to be…

  • The Juxtaposition Of Modern And Ancient In Sicily

    The amphitheater at Segesta sits on top of Monte Bàrbaro at an elevation of 400 meters above sea level, facing north and therefore, the sea. It dates to the middle of the 3rd century B.C.E. Excavations of the area are taking place sporadically. Some have revealed the existence of structures dating back to the 9th…

  • Noto’s Baroque Cathedral

    Noto’s cathedral (La Chiesa Madre di San Nicolò) was completed in 1776 when the city was rebuilt following the devastating earthquakes of 1693. The Sicilian Baroque church sits at the center of a theatrical urban plan that is known as a “stone garden” for its use of local white rock and its elegant symmetry.

  • If These Hills Could Talk: Ragusa Ibla and Ragusa, Sicily

    Ragusa in southeastern Sicily is comprised of the old town of Ragusa Ibla (pictured) and the new city of Ragusa. Both sections of the city, which are on opposite hills, were rebuilt after the massive and distructive 1693 earthquakes. Ragusa is part of the UNESCO site the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto,…

  • Magnificent Monreale Cathedral, Sicily

    The cloisters of Sicily’s Monreale Cathedral were built in the Arab Norman style in the early 13th century by Venetian artisans. Part of the Palermo area UNESCO site that features nine Arab Norman monuments, the cloister boasts 128 columns, all possessing different mosaic designs and many with capitols that illustrate biblical stories and episodes in…

  • Selinunte In Western Sicily

    Considered Europe’s largest archaeological site, Selinunte was a Greek city built on the southwestern coast of Sicily by colonists from the eastern Sicilian Greek outpost of Megara Hyblea. Founded around 651 BC, it displayed its power by building massive temples dedicated to various gods, like this one pictured, Temple E, which scholars believe was dedicated…