Comenius Multicultural
Intercultural Competences
Benvenuti in Sicilia!
Welcome to Sicily!
Italy
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population: about 60.000.000 citizens
capital: Rome
area: 301.318 km²
language: Italian
Sicily
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population of 5.000.000 people
capital: Palermo
official language: Italian
dialect: Sicilian
9 provinces:
Trapani
Palermo
Messina
Agrigento
Caltanissetta
Enna
Catania
Siracusa
Ragusa
Sicily
• Sicily has a splendid multicultural history,
thanks to the people that occupied the island
during history
• Nowadays, Sicily is recognized for its heritage
and you will find a lot of historical and cultural
monuments on the island
• Travelling through Sicily is travelling through
history
The Trinacria
• The regional symbol of Sicily, which you’ll find
on the flag, derives from the Greek mythology
The Trinacria
• The symbol on the Sicilian flag is the “Trinacria”. The
“Trinacria” or “Triskeles” is an ancient Greek symbol
that symbolizes the sun, because Sicily is known as the
“island of the sun”. Nowadays it’s been said that the
“Trinacria” should symbolize the shape of the island,
the three angles, but in fact the “Trinacria” has nothing
to do with the shape of Sicily.
• The face in the center of the Trinacria symbolizes the
“Medusa”, a greek mythical woman with snakes around
her head instead of hair.
• Around the face you see three ears of wheat, because
Sicily has been famous for its grain during history.
Sicilian food
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Cannoli
Gli spaghetti con le sarde
Pasta alla carrettiere
Arancina
Cannoli
Gli spaghetti con le sarde
Pasta alla carrettiere
Arancina
Sicilian beverages
• wines
• limoncello
• coffee
Wine
Limoncello
Coffee
Sicilian music
• The original Sicilian folk music is called
“Tarantella”. A few hundreds of years ago, the
people thought they could get rid off the
venom of a tarantula while dancing on this
music.
Sicilian history
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The Greek Era
The Roman Era
The Muslim Era
The Norman Era
Garibaldi
The Greek Era
• Sicily was a Greek colony until it became
Roman in the year 241 BC
• Even nowadays you can find a lot of Greek
architecture in Sicily, like temples and theatres
Segesta
Segesta
Agrigento
The Roman Era
• In 241 BC, Sicily became Roman
• The Romans used Sicily, thanks to its fertile
fields, as a granary for Rome
• The Romans made the Greek theaters into
arenas for fights between gladiators and
animals
The Muslim Era
• In 827, muslims from Tunisia invaded Sicily
and proclaimed Sicily in 948 an independant
emirate
• Palermo, the capital of Sicily, became a very
important cultural and scientific city
• Nowadays, you can find a lot of traces of the
Muslim Era in Sicily
The Muslim Era
The Norman Era
• In 1130, Sicily became a multiethnic and
multicultural kingdom where lots of peoples
lived side by side like normans, greeks,
muslims and jews
• Palermo, the capital of Sicily, became the
multiethnic centre of European culture
The Arab-Norman Castle at Salemi
Garibaldi
• In 1815, Sicily became property of the family
of the Bourbons of Naples
• In 1860, Garibaldi entered Sicily with his
“Expedition of the Thousand” and liberated it
from the Bourbons
• In 1861, after a referendum, the Sicilians
decided to be part of the Italian state
• Garibaldi declared Salemi as the first capital of
Italy
Garibaldi
Islands
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Lipari
Salina
Vulcano
Stromboli
Panarea
Filicudi
Alicudi
Favignana
Marettimo
Levanzo
Pantelleria
Lampedusa
Linosa
Ustica
Islands
Inno di Mameli