The artistic Sicily

The several temples and the ruins that you can admire in the Valle dei templi near Agrigento (the Greek Girgenti) and the famous amphitheatre in Siracusa bear witness of the splendour of the civilisation of Magna Grecia. But the Roman period was no way inferior; the great poet (Nobel prize) Salvatore Quasimodo dedicated a poem "Vento a Tindari" to the village of Tindari and to its Roman ginnasio.

Goethe went on a pilgrimage to Sicilia looking for the origins of the classic civilisation, here he was received in the aristocracy's palaces.

The noble families lived in luxury, as you can see walking in the beautiful parks (La Favorita in Palermo) or through the old streets of Palermo, rich of Baroque and Rococò palaces or watching at the famous villa Palagonia in Bagheria. But the deep Catholic worship is shown by the imposing cathedrals as for example in Noto (unfourtunately partially ruined) or the splendid Duomo of Monreale. Several monuments of these towns show Arab and Spanish influences as the place-names as Acireale (aci = castle) or Gibilrosso (gibil = mountain). All these different cultures are the origin of a great civilisation, scented as its citrus and sweet as its Marsala, good as its "rosolii ratafià".