Sicily
A Country Unknown
What is Sicily?
Sicily is a country just below Italy. It's kind of like an Italian version of Hawaii, but there's no hula dancing or grass skirts. Instead, this country is home to old, stone buildings and normal clothing. So basically, these are just normal people. I know most of you have never heard of Sicily. It's because this small island only has about 11,000 square miles! Texas is bigger than Sicily! Sicily isn't a common country to remember, since it's so small. So, you have a lot to learn about Sicily. So let's start with Sicily's greatest landmark!
Mount Etna
Back then, Sicily was a very nice place to be. One of their only problems was a volcano. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe. It's at about 11,000 feet high and it could erupt at any minute. Once in 1030, Mount Etna erupted and destroyed almost all the buildings in all the nearby towns. The lava flow reached up to 10 km away from the volcano! That's really far. Sicily did recover, but a lot of precious artifacts were shatters to pieces. Mount Etna's most destructive eruption recorded was on March 11, 1669. It produced enough lava to destroy up to 10 villages before reaching the city limits of Catania 5 weeks later, on April 15th. That's a pretty dangerous volcano! Now let's talk about Sicily's culture.
Culture
Sicily is known as a country of the arts. Many poets and writers grew up and did their work here because Sicily is so beautiful! Sicily may be a small home for sheep farmers, but it's still an island! They have palm trees and great ocean views. Who wouldn't want to work in a great place like this? Anyway, Sicily is home to many great buildings. Take the Teatro Massimo for example. The Teatro Massimo is the third largest opera house in the intire European continent. Sicily is more than people give it credit for! There is even a famous quote about how amazing Sicily really is!
To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, because Sicily is the clue to everything.
-Goethe
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, Sicily may be home to poor people wearing ragged clothes and herding sheep, but having spoken the language of love and having looked at the great ocean view from the coast of Sant Agata Di' Millitello, you have had the vacation of a lifetime.