Introducing Sicily
We became interested in Sicily some years back when good friends showed us pictures of a trip they made there. Then, as we were starting to plan our 2020 trip to France, we saw two Rick Steves episodes on Sicily and decided we really wanted to see the place. Mary & Gilles agreed that it would make an excellent ramble so we started planning. I booked a hotel in Palermo and sent them a 500€ deposit.
Of course, COVID put an end to that trip, but I told the hotel to hold onto the deposit - that we’d be there sooner or later. Now, two and a half years later, we’re in Sicily. (The hotel made good on its promise to hold onto the deposit and applied it to our rooms this week.)
Sicily has about a varied a past as possible. It has been ruled by: Greece (750 BC); Rome (215 BC); the Vandals (468); the Ostrogoths (476); the Byzantines (535); the Arabs (827); the Normans (1060); the Hohenstaufen (1074) - Germans; the Angevin French (1266); the Spanish (1282); the French Bourbons (1734); United Italy (1860). I left out a few other short-lived monarchies!
Because Sicily was independent of Italy for most of its history, when it became part of that country it was treated like an unwanted step-child. Sicily has been under-funded and under-developed and disrespected for much - if not all - of its time as an Italian province. Poverty has been ever-present, and that gave rise to the Mafia, which in its days of power, pretty much ruled Sicily with not a small amount of violence and endemic corruption.
The Mafia has been pretty much relegated to small-time stuff, but the poverty of Sicily remains: its unemployment rate of 14% compares unfavorably with the 6.7% unemployment rate of the rest of Italy. Another economic indicator: the per capita GDP of all countries in the European Union (in 2017) was about 29,000€, in Italy, about 28,000€, in Sicily, 17,600€. This is a poor province and despite its beauty and prodigous agricultural output, the low standard of living can be seen everywhere, especially in the cities.
Because we’ve been on the go the whole time we’ve been in Sicily, my posts are going to be a little late making it to the blogs. Sorry about that!
Our first stop in Sicily was its capital, Palermo.