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Sicily Information

 

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. Minor islands around it are also considered to be part of Sicily.

 

Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. The area was highly regarded as part of Magna Graecia, with Cicero describing Siracusa as the greatest and most beautiful city of all Ancient Greece.

 

The island was once a city-state in its own right, and as the Kingdom of Sicily ruled from Palermo over southern Italy, Sicily, and Malta. It later became a part of the Two Sicilies under the Bourbons, a kingdom governed from Naples that comprised both the island itself and most of Southern Italy. The Italian unification of 1860 led to the dissolution of this kingdom, and Sicily became an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Italy. Sicily is today an autonomous region of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 square kilometres (9,926 sq mi) and currently has just over five million inhabitants.

 

Sicily has its own rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine, architecture and language, having given birth to some of the greatest and most influential people in history. The Sicilian economy is largely based on agriculture (mainly orange and lemon orchards); this same rural countryside has attracted significant tourism in the modern age as its natural beauty is highly regarded. Sicily also holds importance for archeological and ancient sites such as the Necropolis of Pantalica and the Valley of the Temples.

 

Mainland Sicily has several airports which serve numerous Italian and European destinations;

• Catania-Fontanarossa Airport, located on the east-coast is the busiest on the island (and one of the busiest in all of Italy).
• Palermo International Airport, which is also substantially large airport with many national and international flights.
• Trapani-Birgi Airport, a military-civil joint use airport (third for traffic on the island). Recently the airport has seen an increase of traffic thanks to low-cost carriers.
• Comiso-Ragusa Airport, has recently been refurbished and re-converted from military use to civil airport but to the date (March 9) it is still closed to the general traffic.
• Palermo-Boccadifalco Airport is the old airport of Palermo and has internal flights to the Waterdrome of Enna and the Aeolian Islands.
• NAS Sigonella Airport, it is an Italian Air Force and U.S. Navy installation. Between the NATO Bases, Sigonella, is called the "The Hub of the Med".
• Lampedusa Airport and Pantelleria Airport are also two small airports on smaller islands which are considered part of Sicily.

 

For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org

 

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