The Companion Guide to Sicily (Companion Guides)

The beautiful island of Sicily, poised between Europe and Africa, has seen many invaders, nearly all of whom have left their mark in art and architecture. It is also a land of myth and enigma, pagan below the Catholic surface, troubled by the shadow of the Mafia - in the words of the great Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia, a fantasy world. Raleigh Trevelyan knows the island intimately, and his knowledge adds immeasurably to the experience of visiting the great sites: Segesta, Agrigento and the mosaics of the Roman villa near Piazza Armerina, Palermo and Monreale, the theatre at Syracuse and the baroque marvels of Noto. Unforgettable though these are, Sicily's unique character is more fully revealed as the author makes his leisurely way from province to province, describing the landscape and monuments, great treasures and remote villages, and spicing these discoveries with personal anecdote and references from writers down the centuries.