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The Rough Guide to Sicily - Edition 6
by: Jules Brown, Robert Andrews

Off The Bookshelf's Price: £11.99

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Used Price: £5.05
Third Party New Price: £6.49

Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.580493
EAN: 9781843534266
ISBN: 1843534266
Label: Rough Guides Ltd
Manufacturer: Rough Guides Ltd
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 520
Publication Date: April 28, 2005
Publisher: Rough Guides Ltd
Studio: Rough Guides Ltd
Sales Rank: 153797

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Editorial Review:

Book Description:
INTRODUCTION

God first made the world and then he made the Straits of Messina to separate men from madmen. - Sicilian proverb

At the centre of the Mediterranean, but on the periphery of Europe, Sicily is a quite distinct entity from the rest of Italy. Although just 3km away across the water, it's much further away in appearance, feel and culture. A hybrid Sicilian language is still widely spoken, and many place names are tinged with the Arabic that was once in wide use on the island; the food is noticeably different, spicier and with more emphasis on fish, fruit and vegetables; while the flora echoes the shift south - oranges, lemons, olives, almonds and palms are ubiquitous. The nature of day-to-day living is somehow different here, too, experienced outdoors with an exuberance that is almost operatic, and reflected in numerous traditional festivals and processions that take place around the island throughout the year.

There's certainly an immediately separate quality in the people, who see themselves as Sicilians first and Italians a very firm second. The island's strategic importance meant it was held as a colony by some of the richest civilizations in the western world - from the Arabs to the Normans to the Spaniards - who looted Sicily mercilessly and made it the subject of countless foreign wars, leaving it with many fine monuments but little economic independence. Hundreds of years of oppression have bred insularity and resentment, as well as poverty, and the island was probably the most reluctantly unified Italian region in the last century, with Sicilians almost instinctively suspicious of the intentions of Rome. Even today, relations with the mainland are often strained, for many here illustrated every time they look at a map to see the island being kicked - the perpetual football.

And Sicilians do have a point. There's much that hasn't changed since Unification, and this century has brought a host of new problems, with mass emigration, both to the mainland and abroad, a high level of crime, and the continuing marginalization of the island from the Italian political mainstream. Even modernization has brought associated ills. Pockets of the island have been devastated by a tide of bleak construction and disfiguring industry, and although Sicily does now, at last, have some degree of autonomy, with its own parliament and president, little has really been done to tackle the island's more deep-rooted problems: poverty is still endemic, and there's an almost feudal attitude to business and commerce. Both European and central government aid continues to pour in, but much has been siphoned off by organized crime, which, in the west of the island at least, is still widespread.

However, this is just the background, and the island's appeal for travellers is astonishingly wide ranging. You'd do well to investigate the life - and monuments - of Palermo, one of Italy's most visually striking and lively cities; and the second city of Catania, where you may well arrive, also has a live-wire energy. But the chief pleasure is in the landscape: much of the island is mountainous, making for some of Italy's most dramatic scenery and providing one of its most beautiful rugged coastlines. The graceful cone of Mount Etna, Europe's largest volcano, dominates the east of the island, the most memorable of Sicily's natural sights; the northern Monti Madonie offer strenuous walking country; or there's the simple, isolated grandeur of the interior - the island's most sparsely populated, and most undiscovered, region. The coast is home to much of the island's life, with any number of resorts along its northern and eastern stretches, from lively sun-worshippers' haunts like Taormina and Cefal to simple fishing villages fronted by long beaches - out of season, at least, amazingly uncrowded. And for real solitude there are Sicily's outlying islands, where the sea is as clean as you'll find anywhere in the Mediterranean and you truly feel you're on the edge of Europe.

Sicily's diverse history has also left it with what is for many a surprising abundance of archeological remains. The island was an important power-base during the Hellenistic period, and the island's Greek relics, especially, are superb, most spectacularly at Agrigento, Selinunte, Siracusa and a host of remoter sites dotted around the countryside which stand comparison with any of the ruins in Greece itself - and are for the most part a good deal less crowded. There are also well-preserved mosaics at Piazza Armerina which recall the lavish trappings of Sicily's Roman governors. In terms of later architecture, too, the island is remarkably varied, the Arab and Norman elements of its history vividly manifest, particularly on the west and north coasts, and Baroque architecture showing its face in the elegantly restrained cities of the south east, Catania, Noto and M-dica, all planned new towns rebuilt after an earthquake in the seventeenth century.

Synopsis:
The Rough Guide to Sicily is the essential handbook to one of Europe's most alluring islands. The guide includes a full-colour section introducing the island's highlights from the Greek theatre at Taormina to the world-renowned Marsala wine. There are in-depth accounts of all these highlights along with the many others sights, attractions and activities on the island, ffrom imposing temples to Norman Cathdrals and Baroque palaces. There are incisive reviews of the full range of accommodation and restaurants plus practical details on getting around. Accompanying each of the comprehensive descriptions of the resorts, outlying regions and major towns are invaluable maps and plans.

Excerpted from The Rough Guide to Sicily by Robert Andrews, Jules Brown. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
WHERE TO GO
Set in a wide bay at the foot of a fertile valley, the capital, Palermo, is one of Italy’s most visually striking cities, boasting some of the island’s finest churches, markets, museums and restaurants. It gets hot and stuffy here in summer, though, which makes escapes out of the city all the more tempting: to the fashionable beach at Mondello, the sanctuary on Monte Pellegrino or the church mosaics at Monreale. East of Palermo, the Tyrrhenian Coast provides the first opportunity to climb into the hiking and skiing grounds of the Monti Madonie, and it’s along here that you’ll find one of Sicily’s premier resorts, Cefalù, handily situated just an hour from Palermo.

From Milazzo, ferries and hydrofoils depart to the Aeolian Islands, a chain of seven volcanic islands – including Vulcano and Strómboli – that attract sun-worshippers and adventurous hikers alike. Assorted seasonal holiday towns stretching between Messina – crossing-point to mainland Italy – and the fashionable resort of Taormina, make up the island’s Northern Ionian coast, while Sicily’s second city, east-coast Catania, broods under the graceful cone of Mount Etna, the most memorable of Sicily’s natural attractions.
The finest concentration of historical and architectural sites is arguably in Siracusa, where Classical ruins and stunning Baroque buildings decorate Sicily’s most attractive city. In the southeast region beyond, beautiful towns like Noto and Ragusa were rebuilt along planned Baroque lines after a devastating earthquake in the seventeenth century, though the unique Neolithic cemeteries of Pantálica survived to provide one of Sicily’s most atmospheric backwaters.

After the richness of the southeast towns, many find the simple, isolated grandeur of the interior a welcome change. This is the most sparsely populated region, hiding gems like the well-preserved mosaics at Piazza Armerina, which recall the lavish trappings of Sicily’s Roman governors, and the historic mountain stronghold of Enna. Away from the few interior towns, remote roads wind north, back towards Palermo, through little-visited destinations like Prizzi or Corleone whose names chime with the popular image of Sicily as a nest of Mafia intrigue.

Along the south coast, only the ancient temples of Agrigento and the Greek city and beach at Eraclea Minoa attract visitors in any numbers. Further around the coast, Trápani anchors the west of the island, a great base for anyone interested in delving into the very different character of this side of Sicily. The Arabic influence is stronger here than elsewhere, especially in Marsala and Mazara del Vallo, while Selinunte and Segesta hold the most romantic sets of ancient ruins on the island. It’s from ports on the south and west coasts, too, that Sicily’s most absorbing outlying islands are reached. On Lampedusa and Linosa, on the Égadi Islands and, above all, on distant Pantelleria, the sea is as clean as you’ll find anywhere in the Mediterranean, and you truly feel you’re on the edge of Europe.

WHEN TO GO
Any of these places can be extremely uncomfortable to visit at the height of a Sicilian summer, when the dusty sirocco winds blow in from North Africa; your choice of when to go should take this into consideration. In July and August, you’ll roast – and you’ll be in the company of tens of thousands of other tourists all jostling for space on the beaches, in the museums and at the archeological sites. Hotel availability is much reduced and prices will often be higher in response to demand. If you want the heat but not the crowds, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go in May, June or September, while swimming is possible right into November. Spring is really the optimum time to come, and it arrives early: the almond blossom flowers in February, and there are fresh strawberries in April. Easter is a major celebration, a good time to see some of the more traditional festivals like the events at Trápani, Érice and Piana degli Albanesi, though again they’ll all be oversubscribed with visitors. Winter is mild by northern European standards and is a nice time to be here, at least on the coast, where the skies stay clear and life continues to be lived very much outdoors. On the other hand, the interior – especially around Enna – can get snowed under, providing skiing opportunities south of Cefalù, at Piano Battáglia, or on Mount Etna, while anywhere else in the interior can be subject to (often considerable) blasts of wind and downpours of rain.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- This deserved no star! Travel in light
This is THE WORST guide book in the world. Local people of Sicily seem to be the best guides for me. I spent a week in Sicily and every place I visited I would refer to this book. But all these pompous authors wrote were sarcastic and frankly insulting to Sicily. This guide completely avoids how beautiful the Aoelian Islands are, where each island is different and diverse and some with living volcanoes. The only benefit I got from this book was when I was quoting it with locals I met on my travels and at laugh how bad this book really is. Seriously, you can travel to Sicily armed with just a map and phrase book. I wished I did because this rough guide was heavy!

Rating:

- good guide
I have just returned from a five-day unplanned car trip to sicily totally dependent on the Rough Guide and a map. It has proved an excellent guide to the best places to visit and an excellent companion throughout, for which my friends and i are grateful. The tips regarding restaurants and hotels proved remarkably precise and useful.

david fabri, malta

Rating:

- Quite good overall, poor maps
I don't have any big complaints about this book, but I think readers should be warned not to rely on the road maps. The map of western Sicily shows a non-existent road north from Scopallo to Vito on the headland - there's actually a beautiful nature reserve where they have the road. When we were driving from Palermo to Mt Etna, their map of the roads around Belpasso and that area was rubbish. Directions to the Capuchin catacombs in Palermo were poor too.

Good guide - just buy a road map separately if you are driving...

Rating:

- Sicily Map
The map was great. We never got lost using it and it showed everywhere we wanted to go and many more beside. We used it to find non-main road routes to see the real Sicily, not just the guide book /tourist bits.

Good map might try more of this series as and when

Rating:

- Sicily
The book was chosen because the recent guide came out after we were going. The danger of being out of date did not materialse. A warning that it could snow in winter even along the coast would have been useful - it did. but the book was just the ticket and very useful

Books : The Rough Guide to Sicily - Edition 6