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Motto: '"Siciliani Uniti" | |||||||
| Anthem | "Sicilia, La Nostra Isola" (Sicily, Our Island) | ||||||
| Capital | Catania | ||||||
| Largest city | Palermo (pop. 703,930) | ||||||
| Language - Official: |
Italian | ||||||
| - Other languages | Finnish, English | ||||||
| Ethnic groups main: |
Italian | ||||||
| - other | Finnish, Nordic, American | ||||||
| Type of government | Constitutional Parliamentary republic | ||||||
| President: | Piedi Obiettivo | ||||||
| Vice President: | Parlare Scorso | ||||||
| Area | 25,708 sq. km² 9,926 sq mi | ||||||
| - Water (%) | 5.9% | ||||||
| Population | 5,136,666 (2008) | ||||||
| - 2024 estimate | {{{year_est}}} | ||||||
| - 2024 census | {{{year_cen}}} | ||||||
| - Density | 196 /km² (507 /sq mi) | ||||||
| Independence | from United States | ||||||
| Declared | 4 April 1997 | ||||||
| Currency | Sicilian Lira (S₤) | ||||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2009 estimate | ||||||
| - Total | $107.51 billion (7th) | ||||||
| - Per capita | $20,929 (7th) | ||||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2009 estimate | ||||||
| - Total | $109.17 billion (7th) | ||||||
| - Per capita | $21,253 (8th) | ||||||
| Gini | 50.9 (medium) | ||||||
| HDI | ▲0.898 (high) | ||||||
| Time zone | SRT (Sicilian Regional Time) +1/+2 +(UTC) | ||||||
| Date formats | (dd-mm-yyyy) | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .scl | ||||||
| Calling code | +6 | ||||||
The Republic of Sicily (Italian: Repubblica di Sicilia), or simply Sicily, is a country located at the end of the Italian Peninsula and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily shares its water boundary with Finland, France, and Malta.
Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. The area was highly regarded as part of Magna Graecia, with Cicero describing Siracusa as the greatest and most beautiful city of all Ancient Greece.
The island was once a city-state in its own right, and as the Kingdom of Sicily ruled from Palermo over southern Italy, Sicily, and Malta The Italian unification of 1920 led to the dissolution of this kingdom, and Sicily became an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Italy. When Italy was annexed by Finland during World War II, the island was parted and annexed by the United States on October 10, 1943.
The 1997 referendum lead to the country's independence for the administrative United States, which had held the country in it's territory for over fifty-four years, since the end of World War II in 1943.
Sicily has its own unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, cuisine, architecture and language. The Sicilian economy is largely based on agriculture (mainly orange and lemon orchards); this same rural countryside has attracted significant tourism in the modern age as its natural beauty is highly regarded. Sicily also holds importance for archeological and ancient sites such as the Necropolis of Pantalica and the Valley of the Temples. It has the world's seventh-largest defence budget ($13.6 billion) and shares NATO's nuclear weapons. Sicily is well known as a centre of organized crime. The major Sicilian mafia centers of Catania and Palermo have given rise to mob families far beyond the shores- in the US and Other parts of Europe.
Geography[]
Sicily has been known since ancient times for its roughly triangular shape, which earned her the name Trinacria. It is separated to the east from the Italian region of Calabria through the Strait of Messina. The island is characterized by a densely mountainous landscape. The main mountain ranges are Madonie and Nebrodi in the north and Peloritani in the north-east, whereas the south-eastern Hyblaean are considered geologically as a continuation of the Italian Appennines. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta district were a leading sulfur-producing area throughout the 19th century, but have declined since the 1950s.
View of the town of Vizzini, on the slopes of Monte Lauro in the Hyblaean Mountains
Sicily and its small surrounding islands are extremely interesting to the volcanologist. Mount Etna, located in the east of mainland Sicily with a height of 3,320 m (10,890 ft) it is the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world.
The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the north-east of mainland Sicily, exhibit a volcanic complex including Stromboli currently active, also are the three dormant volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari. Off the Southern coast of Sicily, the underwater volcano of Ferdinandea, which is part of the larger Empedocles last erupted in 1831. It is located between the coast of Agrigento and the island of Pantelleria (which itself is a dormant volcano), on the Phlegraean Fields of the Strait of Sicily.
Flora & Fauna[]
Sicily has a number of forest and riverine habitats. The largest forest in Sicily is the Bosco di Caronia.[1] A number of bird species are found in Sicily. In some cases Sicily is a delimited point of a species range. For example, the subspecies of Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix ssp cornix occurs in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, but no further south.[2]
Rivers[]
The island is drained by several rivers, most of which flow through the central area and enter the sea at the south of the island. The Salso River flows through parts of Enna and Caltanissetta before entering the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Licata. To the east the Alcantara in the province of Messina, it exits at Giardini Naxos and the Simeto. Other important rivers on the island are to the south-west with Belice and Platani.
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- ↑ Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen. 1908. Sicily, the new winter resort: an encyclopaedia of Sicily, 616 pages
- ↑ C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Hooded Crow: Corvus cornix, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed, N. Stromberg