There are treasures that you don’t need to touch to feel their rarity. However, on this triangular and evocative land, you will constantly come across the signs left by history, by the passage of man and by his ingenuity.
Get ready to discover how many ways Sicily is able to amaze you. He will do it when you least expect it, while walking along the street you will come across old artisan shops, guardians of traditions handed down from father to son. Ancient craft activities, such as the processing of obsidian or the unique and precious Mediterranean coral.
Some keep alive arts and traditions that are now considered a World Heritage Site, such as that of the Sicilian Puppets protagonists of the Opera dei Pupi, or the art of dry-stone walls that embellish the landscapes with their archaic beauty, both registered in the Oral Heritage and intangible UNESCO World Heritage Site.
And what about archaeological sites? Of the 7 Sicilian UNESCO, we find some that are recognized as among the most beautiful archaeological sites of all time! Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples or the magnificent Theater of Taormina! All clues to a glorious past in vivid colors just waiting to unfold before your eyes.
UNESCO
Sicily is among the regions of Italy with the largest number of sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The seven “precious gems” that give it eternal beauty are:
The archaeological area of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, which testifies to the greatness of one of the most important cities of antiquity, with Doric temples in an exemplary state of conservation; Syracuse, the largest and most beautiful Greek city according to Cicero, and the rocky necropolis of Pantalica, a site of great naturalistic, archaeological and ethno-anthropological importance, characterized by the presence of tombs dating back as far as the 12th century BC; the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina, with its priceless mosaics that tell surprising insights into the society of the time; Mount Etna, among the most important active volcanoes on the planet, which guarantees history and mythology the spectacle of its continuous eruptions and hosts, between lava and snow, unparalleled ecosystems; the Baroque of Val di Noto, and Palazzolo Acreide simply sparkling architectural and artistic heritage, is the common thread that connects, between palaces and churches, eight cities in the south-east; the Arab-Norman route from Palermo to Monreale and Cefalù which unwinds in nine stages and which, between civil and religious buildings, testifies to the contamination and the perfect stylistic encounter between Islamic, Western and Byzantine civilizations; finally, the Aeolian Islands represent a unicum for global volcanology and geology, a rich and happy archipelago in its complexity.