Thirteen Things I bet you didn't know about Sicily

Apart from being the home of the Mafia, Sicily is a culture rich and diverse island.
1. It was the birth place of Archimedes ( Syracuse, 287BC) - his ingenious war machines helped Syracuse resist a Roman siege for 3 years.
2. Was ruled by Greeks,Romans, Byantines, Arabs, NOrmans, Hohenstaufen monarchs, Angevin and Aragonese dynasties, Spanish and before unification of Italy the Bourbons.
3. Mt. Etna, Europe's largest active volcano, was seen as the home of Hephataestus, the God of Fire, Roman God Vulcan, and Mt. Etna and other islands around Sicily feature in Homer's Odyssey.
4. The train ride around the bottom of Mt. Etna takes five hours.
5. It is one of the few countries in Europe were all of its occupiers have left their mark in architecture that is still visible to this day e.g. Grecian, Roman, Moorish, Norman, Baroque .
6. For the dangerous trip to Sicily, the Greeks used ships called triremes - a galley 35m(115ft) long, faster and more agile than the Phoenician vessels. They traveled about 100 km (60miles) per day, and had 200 crew. They had three ranks of oars, and all 170 oars were synchronized.
7. Home to a diverse cultural society, it was the home to writer Giovanni Verga (1840 -1922) Painter Pietro Novelli (1603-47) and composer Vincenzo Bellini (1801-35)
8. Palermo's Teatro Massimo is one of the largest opera houses in Europe.
9. The Altar of HieronII was a sacrificial monument to Zeus, and as many as 400 bulls were put to death at the same time.
10. The Temple of Concord (5C BC)is one of the best preserved Doric temples in the world. (As are many temples in the Valley of the Temples built by the Carthaginians)
11. Sicily is famous for icecream - cassata
12. The city of Caltagirone is a UNESCO World Heritage site. - famous for its potters and production of ceramics from Bronze Age pots, Greek Hellenistic and roman kraters and figurines, Middle Age vases, and more recent jars and glazed vases, the 142 step of the Santa Maria del Monte Stairway built in 1608 is made entirely of majolica tiles.
13. The Sicilian Hound (Cirneco) is a breed of dog native to the Etna area, was used as a hunting dog in ancient times.