The Mini Rough Guide to Sicily: Travel Guide eBook , livre ebook

HOW TO USE THIS E-BOOK

Getting Around this e-Book
This Rough Guide Mini eBook is designed to inspire you and help you plan for your visit to Sicily, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.
The guide begins with an Introduction that features our selection of 10 things not to miss in Sicily, information on what’s new, when to go and how to travel sustainably, plus three itineraries, designed to help you get the most out of your trip. The History chapter gives the lowdown on Sicily’s past and present, while the Places chapter is a comprehensive guide to all the best sights, with handy area highlights links and details on where to shoot the best pictures. You will find ideas for getting active, immersing yourself in culture, discovering the local nightlife or what to shop for in Things to do , while the Food and drink chapter introduces you to the local cuisine, what to eat and how, and gives listings of our favourite restaurants by area. Finally, Travel essentials offers just that: practical information to help you plan your trip.
Maps
All key attractions and sights in Sicily are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.
Images
You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Sicily. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.
About Rough Guides:
Published in 1982, the first Rough Guide – to Greece – was created by Mark Ellingham and a small group of friends who couldn’t find a guidebook to meet their needs. Combining a contemporary, journalistic style with a thoroughly practical approach to travellers’ needs, the immediate success of the book spawned a series that rapidly covered dozens of destinations. These days, Rough Guides include recommendations from budget to luxury and cover more than 120 destinations worldwide, all regularly updated by our team of ever curious, roaming writers. These Rough Guide Minis may be small, but they are packed with information and inspiration and offer amazing value for money.
© 2025 Apa Digital AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Sicilian way of life
A diverse island
Ancient cities and towns
Regeneration
10 Things not to miss
A perfect tour of Sicily
Sicily for foodies
Sicily’s great outdoors
History
Early settlers
The Greek centuries
Romans and the Saracens
Stupor Mundi and the Sicilian Vespers
Spanish rule
From unification into the present
Chronology
Places
Palermo
The Quattro Canti
The Albergheria
The Cattedrale and Palazzo dei Normanni
San Giovanni degli Eremiti
From the Vucciria to Piazza Verdi
The Museo Archeológico
Teatro Massimo
La Kalsa
San Francesco and San Lorenzo
Piazza Marina
Galleria Regionale at Palazzo Abatellis
Around Palermo
La Zisa
Catacombe dei Cappuccini
Parco della Favorita and Monte Pellegrino
Monreale
Mondello
East from Palermo
Cefalù
Museo Mandralisca
Piazza Duomo and the Old Town
Into the Madonie
Tindari
The Aeolian Islands (Isole Eolie)
Vulcano and Lípari
Other islands
The Eastern Coast
Messina
Taormina
The Teatro Greco and Giardino Pubblico
Mount Etna
Catania
Piazza del Duomo
Piazza Mazzini and Via dei Crociferi
Teatro Romano
Inland to Enna and Piazza Armerina
Piazza Armerina
The Villa Romana at Casale
Caltagirone
Siracusa (Syracuse)
The Parco Archeológico della Neapolis
Basilica di San Giovanni and the Catacombs
The Museo Archeológico
Ortigia
Fonte Aretusa and Galleria Regionale
Inland from Siracusa
Cava Grande del Fiume Cassibile
Val di Noto
Noto
Riserva Naturale di Vendicari
Ragusa
Modica and Scicli
The Southwestern Coast
Agrigento
Valley of the Temples
The Museo Archeologico and the Roman City
Modern Agrigento
Selinunte
The West Coast
Mazara del Vallo
Marsala
The Old Town
Mozia
Trapani
Erice
Segesta
Capo San Vito
The Egadi Islands (Isole Egadi)
Pantelleria
Things to Do
Shopping
Weekly markets
Sports and outdoor activities
Nightlife
Culture
Puppet Theatre
Cooking classes
Children’s Sicily
Festivals and events
Food and drink
Top ten things to try
1. Arancino
2. Granita
3. Sicilian avocados
4. Pasta alla Norma
5. Cassata
6. Cannoli
7. Swordfish involtini
8. Pasta con le sarde
9. Modica chocolate
10. Avola Rum
Where to eat
What to drink
Wine
Menu reader
Some typical pastas
Some common pasta sauces
Places to eat
Palermo
Aeolian Islands (Isole Eolie)
Agrigento
Catania
Cefalù
Enna
Erice
Módica
Noto
Piazza Armerina
Ragusa
Siracusa
Taormina
Travel essentials
Accessible travel
Accommodation
Airports
Apps
Camping
Car hire
Climate
Crime and safety
Driving
Electricity
Embassies and consulates
Emergencies
Getting there
Guides and tours
Health and medical Care
Language
LGBTQ+ travellers
Money
Opening hours
Police
Public holidays
Telephone
Time zones
Tipping
Toilets
Transport
Visas and entry requirements
Websites
Introduction
When Sicilians make the 3km (2 mile) trip across the Strait of Messina, they are likely to say that they are going to Italy or ‘il continente’. Italians living on the peninsula, likewise tend to think of their neighbours in Sicily as being different – a distinction with which few Sicilians would take issue. In many ways the digital era has strengthened Sicilian identity. From street food outlets and artisan bakeries, home restaurants and farm-stays to prickly pear jam and T-shirts bearing (often rude) slogans in dialect, social media has provided a platform for Sicilians committed to revaluing their unique heritage Travellers will quickly notice that Sicily feels different from Italy. To understand why, you need only look to the past. For over 3,000 years, just about all the powers that sailed – and battled to control - the Mediterranean, set their sights on Sicily.
The sighs of their presence are tangible. Classical Greek temples, mosaic-filled Norman churches and ornate Baroque piazzas lends a theatrical and decidedly unique presence to the island. In Palermo, the cathedral richly ornamented by the Spanish is only steps away from the mosaic-filled palace that was the seat of the enlightened courts of the island’s Saracen and Norman rulers; the Baroque churches and piazzas of Catania incorporate columns of Roman temples; medieval Erice is built near the site of a temple to Venus allegedly erected by some of the island’s earliest settlers, the Elymians, on their return from the Trojan wars

Notes
Sicily is a great destination for adventurous visitors. Coast, islands and mountains lend themselves to year-round sporting activities, from hiking up mountains and volcanoes to scuba diving and snorkelling in marine reserves, gorge trekking and exploring offshore islands. At a stretch you could even ski on Etna in the morning and sun yourself on the coast in the afternoon.
Many islanders still speak dialect as well as Italian, a combination of words and sounds from the long Greek, Latin, Aragonese, Arabic and Norman-French past. Sicilian is so incomprehensible to most Italians that Sicilian films and TV series have to be subtitled. The food in Sicily is different from that of the mainland, too: the lemons, capers and almonds that the Arabs brought with them from North Africa still appear in many dishes. Since most Sicilians don’t live far from the sea, fish, often the pesce spada (swordfish) caught in the Strait of Messina, is a staple on most menus.

Shutterstock
Orange picking in Catania
Sicilian way of life
Travellers will probably notice that Sicilians approach life a little differently than other Italians do. It is difficult to quantify exactly what these differences are, but being among Sicilians is one of the pleasures of touring the island. They are welcoming to their visitors, and are likely to strike up a conversation about a son who studied in London or a cousin who lives in Chicago or Brooklyn. Indeed perhaps it is because almost a third of the island’s population emigrated in the late 19th and early 20th century, that Sicilians, understanding how it is to be a stranger in a strange land, are so welcoming.

What’s new
The magnificently restored Palazzo Butera – home to the world-class Valsecchi collection of contemporary art opened in Palermo in 2022. You could happily spend an entire day exploring the palace and its collection, taking a break for a fine lunch in the gallery’s wonderful restaurant, Le Cattive. Milazzo, the main port for the Aeolian Islands, is experiencing a gastronomic boom, with gourmet gelato (at Sikè), cornetti filled with ricotta made from the farm’s buffalo at Tenuta Anasita, and the recent opening of Trattoria del Esposito, where locally sourced ingredients appear on a reasonably priced fixed menu. As for trends, Taormina is flourishing in the wake of the HBO series, The White Lotus , filmed in the San Domenico Palace hotel, fresh from a make-over by Four Seasons. Ortigia is on the way to becoming another Taormina, with new bars, restaurants and boutiques opening every month. In Noto, the Rocco Forte group are opening a new hotel in Palazzo Castelluccio, following the roaring success of their spectacular rescue of the Villa Igieia in Palermo.
A diverse island
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, a hefty 25,708 sq km (9,926 square miles), and its landscapes of tall mountains, vast coastal plains and inland valleys are more diverse than those of many countries. The Sicilian scenery is dramatic, sometimes harsh but seldom graceless. Nor is the island short on natural spectacle.
Mount Etna, Europe’s most forceful volcano, is also Sicily’s tallest mountain and most famous natural wonder. It dominates, and periodically threaten