The largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily is a land of beauty, mystery, and world-class monuments. It's an exotic mix of bloodlines and architecture from medieval Normandy, Aragonese Spain, Moorish North Africa, ancient Greece, Phoenicia, and Rome. Much of the island's raw, primitive nature has faded in modern times, as thousands of newfangled cars clog the narrow lanes of its biggest city, Palermo. Poverty remains widespread, yet the age-old stranglehold of the Mafia seems less certain thanks to the increasingly vocal protests of an outraged public. On the eastern edge of the island is Mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe. Many of Sicily's larger urban areas (Trapani, Catania, and Messina) are relatively unattractive, but areas of ravishing beauty and eerie historical interest are found in the cities of Syracuse, Taormina, Agrigento, and Selinunte. Sicily's ancient ruins are rivaled only by those of Rome itself. Agrigento's Valley of the Temples, for example, is worth the trip alone.
