Art and culture between sun and sea.
The identity of a land born of the waves.
What is the identity of this land born of the waves?
You may find yourself asking this question after your first encounter.
Indeed it may well happen. For it is not easy to grasp the meaning
of this island, which is itself a continent.
But don't despair - that's how it always is: at first sight you
may well not fully understand.
It is not easy to understand Sicily.
Just like a beautiful woman, Sicily needs a certain type of approach and cannot be easily won.
All you can do is to let yourself be seduced. Just as the first Mycenaeans were seduced when they came this way to buy obsidian and pumice-stone in the Aeolian Islands, when nothing else was known for cutting and polishing. Just like the Phoenicians, who along these very coasts set up their trading stations and left them in the charge of people taken on in every corner of the Mediterranean, people who lived in peace, trading with Siculs, Sicans, and Elymians.
Why were they called Elymians? Ex limen, in Latin means refugee, driven from home. This gives an immediate picture of the ancient island civilization. Everyone was always welcome. Just like the Greeks, seeking somewhere to live in peace, and hosts of others. As happens today to many other unfortunates who escape to these shores, fleeing from poverty, war, famine, and oppression.
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