Page 11 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Along the south coast, only the spectacular ancient temples of Agrigento and the
Greek city and beach at Eraclea Minoa attract visitors in any numbers. Further around
the coast, the up-and-coming city of Trapani anchors the west of the island, a great
base for anyone interested in delving into the very different character of this side of

Sicily. The Arabic influence is stronger here than elsewhere, especially in Marsala
and Mazara del Vallo, while Selinunte and Segesta hold the island’s most romantic
sets of ancient ruins. It’s from ports on the south and west coasts, too, that Sicily’s
most absorbing outlying islands are reached. On Lampedusa, on the Egadi Islands
and, above all, on distant Pantelleria, the sea is as clean as you’ll find anywhere in
the Mediterranean, and you truly feel you’re on the edge of Europe.

ICE CREAM

Eating a genuine Sicilian ice cream is one of the world’s most voluptuous

gastronomic experiences, a melt-in-the-mouth sensation that suffuses your tastebuds
with the unadulterated essence of mandarin, almond, rose or whichever locally
grown fruit, nut or flower the gelataio has decided is at its prime.

The art of ice cream making is around a thousand years old here – the Arabs
brought with them the technique of making sherbet or sharbat by blending fruit
syrups and flower essences with snow taken from Mount Etna and other mountains. It
seems probable that it was a resourceful Sicilian who got the idea of making a good

thing better, freezing a mixture of milk, sugar or honey. By the sixteenth century ices
were all the rage at the trendsetting French court of Catherine de’ Medici, who
imported a Sicilian into her kitchen with the sole job of making ice creams, granite
and sorbets.

By the eighteenth century ices were so popular that virtually the entire revenue of
the Bishop of Catania came from selling the snow of Mount Etna. Years when

snowfall was scant or nonexistent provoked civil unrest during the steamy summers:
in 1777 a boat rumoured to be carrying snow was attacked and its precious cargo
seized by Siracusans desperate for ice cream.

Ices and ice creams were loved by rich and poor alike: at a banquet in eighteenth-
century Palermo, 5000kg of snow were needed to keep the 300 guests in constant
supply of frozen refreshment, while at the other end of the scale, street vendors
throughout the island ensured that ice cream could be enjoyed by all but the very

poorest, selling it by the spoonful to those who could afford no more.

When to go

Sicily can be an extremely uncomfortable place to visit at the height of summer, when