The Place
It's more than an is­land! Dis­cover Si­cily and dis­cover the world. The world's first multi­cul­tur­al soci­ety, our is­land is Italy's (and Eu­rope's) most his­tori­cal­ly cos­mo­poli­tan re­gion, having been ruled by Asians, Afri­cans and Eu­ropeans. Sicily is black and white and a mil­lion shades of gray. There's no other place on Earth like it. Visit­ing Sicily is like visit­ing over a dozen coun­tries in one! Our is­land is a unique place full of art, ar­cheo­lo­gy, his­tory, folk­lore and breath­taking scenery. And, of course, great food.

The en­chant­ing land where Archi­medes taught and Saint Paul preached was a Greek colo­ny, a Roman prov­ince, an Arab emirate and a Norman king­dom. The Phoe­ni­cians, Car­thagin­ians, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese and Jews made this unique island their own, leaving behind an eclectic history that you can still touch today. And Sicily will touch you. Sicily is Eu­rope, Afri­ca and Asia on one island. Greek tyrants, Arab emirs, Nor­man knights, Byzan­tine bishops and Holy Roman Emperors made it the place it is. Ex­perience their eternal legacy in Phoe­nician set­tlements, Punic cities, Greek temples, Roman amphi­theatres, Norman-Arab castles and Aragonese churches. Thirty cen­turies of his­tory expres­sed in the Clas­sical, the Roman­esque, the Gothic, the Baroque...

Sikania to its most an­cient peo­ples, our island was Sikelia, Plato's uto­pian soci­ety, to the ancient Greeks. Later, the son­net was created at the Court of Frederick II, and the Si­cilian language claimed its place in the lit­era­ture of Dante and Boccac­cio. Sunny Si­cily is Punic Palermo, towering Taormina, ancient Agrigento, splendid Siracusa, and medieval Mon­reale and Cefalù.

And God created Sicily. The place where the moun­tains meet the sea. Si­cilia,the is­land in the sun, is home to Heavenly beaches, majestic mountains and Europe's greatest natural won­der, Mount Etna. Sicily's coasts are gold with orange and lemon orchards. Each scenic region offers some­thing dif­ferent. In north­eastern Sicily's Nebrodi Moun­tains you'll find un­expected­ly lush forests. In the central regions you'll en­counter rugged land and rol­ling hills. Dignified vine­yards, ancient olive groves, hardy almond orchards and end­less wheat fields complete the picture. Sum­mer is amber land under a sky of blue. Winter finds palm trees dusted with snow in a surreal symphony. Spring is a rain­bow of wild flowers set against greenest fields...

If you could choose just one place to visit where you could wit­ness every­thing from the cul­ture of Hel­lenic antiquity to the glories of the Mid­dle Ages and the won­ders of the Renais­sance, shaped by a dozen civiliza­tions, Si­cily would be that place. And this web­site would be a good starting point.

Is Sicily Italy? Yes, our island is Italian. And French and Spanish and Greek, with a few German and Arab nuances in its cul­tural mix. It is the world's is­land. A place where time and tradi­tion have been forged by peoples and faiths from the north and south, from the east and west. Beauty in diver­sity: Europe, Africa and Asia in one magical moment...

Bedda, the Sicilian word for "beautiful," is the way we Sicilians describe this place.

You won't be the first guest to enjoy Si­cilian hospitality. Cicero, Saint Louis, Richard Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine have already tested the waters for you. Yes, our island has been ex­tending hospi­tality to first-time visitors for three thou­sand years. You can be one of them.

We like to think that if the inter­net existed in Cicero's time he would have visited this site before com­ing to the is­land. You won't need papy­rus or a Roman courier, just a touch­screen (we're tablet-friend­ly), key­board or mouse. We'll take care of the rest.

A world unto itself, this island, in all its com­plexities, is a land like no other.

In Sicily tourism (a word we don't like too much) isn't just sight­seeing. It's an en­tire cul­ture.

Come visit our sunny island. We've been expecting you for three thou­sand years!

The Dis­covery
It's the Italy you never knew ex­isted, on Si­cily's de­fin­i­tive (and larg­est) on­line des­ti­na­tion guide, up­dated dai­ly. The world's fa­vor­ite Si­cilian web­site since 1999!

Things to see and do, scenery, cities, shop­ping, history, cul­ture, nature, beaches, hotels, maps, restaurants, travel plan­ning, arts, fashion, food and wine, weather, and an on­line magazine with real in­forma­tion you won't find on any other site, writ­ten for think­ing people. Find it here.

Come to Si­cily...
» Why Si­cily? 12 cul­tures in 1.
» Top 12 destina­tions in Si­cily.
» Scenic Places & ge­og­ra­phy.
» Tours of Si­cily & more.
» HOTELS and other lodg­ing.
» Restaurants reviewed.
» Travel Faqs with real in­fo.
» Sicily Air­ports - get­ting there.
» Airlines servicing Si­cily.
» Travel Ideas for your visit.
» Sicily Maps - roads & cities.
» Sicily Weather fore­casts, temp­eratures.
» Beaches in Sicily - a selected listing.
» Travel Services for unique ex­periences.
» Palermo - guide to Sicily's capital.
» Bed & Breakfasts, other accom­moda­tions.
» Guest Farms - country retreats (agri­turismo).
» Villas in Sicily & how to find one.
» Golf courses & resorts.
» Sightseeing and touring in Sicily.
» Tour Guides listed by locality.
» Transportation - trains, buses, taxis.
» Sicily for Children - fun for families!
» Net & Mobile phone service in Italy.
» Cooking Classes around Si­cily.
» Travel Guide Books reviewed.
» Sicilian Genealogy and family history.
» Travel Agent Resources and sug­ges­tions.
» Sicily Facts and figures.

Featur­ing descrip­tions of places you'll want to visit, in­dexed by both city and things to see and do, along with some use­ful travel faqs, history (with sec­tions on customs, cul­ture, the Si­cilian language, life, gene­alogy and much more), and even a good book page, this publica­tion offers timely, use­ful travel informa­tion, provided by a qualified staff based in Sicily – not just travel writers or tour guides but insight­ful arche­ologists and widely-published his­to­rians who really know the people and place, present­ing facts and details you won't find any­place else. Viewed nine thou­sand times each day, our pages present varied (even con­tro­ver­sial) points of view. The real Sicily, not the generic "tourism" version pre­sented by other sites. Most online destina­tion guides list their descrip­tions by locality. With Best of Sicily, you can search for a city, town or his­torical site by locality but also by the kind of thing to see. In Sicily archeol­ogy alone makes for an ad­venture, but it's just part of this is­land's his­toric heritage.

We're not a travel agency (although we promote several co-branded tours), but you can find a flight, book your hotel and reserve a car through this site. Plan your entire visit, or just find out more about the place and its people. There's some­thing here for almost every­body interested in some­thing Sicilian. Every day, we're Sicily's inter­national point of reference for thou­sands of the world's most dis­cern­ing readers: Travelers, teachers, students (for whom we have a special page), jour­nal­ists, food and wine aficio­nados, cul­ture vul­tures, adventurous trek­kers and virtual tourists. In­formed readers, not generic "visitors."

Beyond the web, Best of Sicily sponsors the publica­tion of more hard-copy books about Sicily in English than any other Sicily destina­tion guide or Sicily-oriented travel service, in­cluding the first guide to Si­cilian family history re­search.

This site is for you. Just real, practical informa­tion. On our Sicilian history pages, with their links to hun­dreds of articles, you won't find just a life­less nar­rative ac­count of the "who" and "what" of ancient, medieval and modern Si­cilian history, you'll under­stand the "how" and the "why" that makes a very special place come to life.

But no clichés and no plat­i­tudes. Whether we're presenting practical sight­seeing advice or real­istic in­forma­tion about travel safety, that's one thing that has always sep­arated us from the herd of self-interested travel sites pub­lished by hotel chains, travel agencies and public travel bureaux.

The People
De­me­ter, Ar­chi­me­des, Ar­e­thu­sa, Per­seph­o­ne, King Rog­er, Em­per­or Fred­er­ick II, Antonel­lo da Mes­sina, Ales­sandro Scarlat­ti, Vin­cenzo Bel­lini, Giovan­ni Verga, Ful­co di Ver­dura, Leonardo Scia­scia, Eleonora Ab­bagnato, Marel­la Fer­rera, Giuseppe Torna­tore, Maria Grazia Cucinot­ta, Giovanni Fal­cone and the Beati Paoli are just a few of the Si­cilians you'll meet in Best of Sicily On­line Magazine. (Continued after ad.)

A new wave of books about Si­cily!
The Peoples of Sicily - A Multi­cultural Legacy: The first overview of all the civiliza­tions that populated our island.
Women of Sicily - Saints, Queens & Rebels: The first book on the historical women of Si­cily written in English by a Si­cilian woman in Sicily.
The Kingdom of Sicily 1130-1860: The first "complete" history of the King­dom of Si­cily over its seven centuries.
Sicilian Food & Wine - The Cogno­scente's Guide: The first book of its kind published in English.
Sicilian Genealogy & Heraldry: The first guide to Si­cilian family history re­search.

Pre­sent­ing orig­i­nal ar­ti­cles about peo­ple, places, art and de­sign, theatre, cinema, dance, delicious cuisine and Si­cilian cul­ture (and even a god­dess or two), Best of Sicily Magazine is the first on­line magazine pub­lished entirely in Sicily in English.

Every month, the magazine presents in­sightful, original arti­cles by Sicily's best authors on the life and soul of the place called Sicilia. And arti­cles on a few "honorary" Sicilians like Aeschylus, Abdullah al Idrisi, Goethe, Wagner, D.H. Lawrence, Emilio Segré and Danilo Dolci. Un­censored, unbiased and un­inhibited, it's the real Sicily and real Si­cilians. Over 400 original articles you can ex­pect from a real publica­tion like this one, not just items taken from "news feeds," pseu­don­y­mous blogs or Wiki­pedia entries (that any visitor can edit). Our arti­cles on things like the Crusades in Sicily, for example, are writ­ten with a uniquely Si­cilian focus you simply won't find any­place else.

Boasting more "unique" foreign (non-Italian) readers around the world than any Si­cilian news­paper or hard-copy magazine (over 2 million in 2014 and some 13 million since 2003), en­joying a return-visit rate of 22 percent, this site has a little of every­thing. Hundreds of articles about peo­ple, wild­life, nature, art, out of the way places, esoteric his­tory. And vital social issues deal­ing with the life of real Sicilians in to­day's Sicily – things like educa­tion, the women's move­ment, the work­place and en­viron­mental conserva­tion. Things that make Sicily a living, breathing place, not just a "tourist destina­tion." The un­discovered, living place, full of comp­lexities and real people. And its own Si­cilian iden­tity rooted in a dis­tinctive heritage.

There are some great Si­cilian writers, but this site is the most wide­ly read En­glish-lan­guage, non-fic­tion pub­lica­tion about Si­cily. And, of course, it's free. (No hard-copy Si­cilian news­paper or pub­lica­tion has ever en­joyed so many readers inter­na­tional­ly, not even Giuseppe Tomasi di Lam­pe­dusa's best­sel­ling novel, The Leop­ard.) The truest colours of this very special place, polished but never varnished, in a multi­cultural mo­saic beyond "Sicilian tour­ism." We thank you, the web's most sophis­ticat­ed readers, for making us the world's favorite Si­cilian web­site!