Travel documents

Travellers only need a valid Identity card for Belgium citizens. Please contact your embassy in case you have an other nationality.

 

Climate

May is a perfect month to travel. The interior is spectacular, with the mountain slopes exploding in colour and the temperatures ideal for walking. The temperatures on the coast and in the islands will now be extremely comfortable. If you’re lucky, you might get to witness the “mattanza” or tuna harvest in the fishing towns all over the western part Sicily.

Language

Locale inhabitants speak Sicilian or Italian. However, in the mayor cities most of the people also speak English.

But what is Sicilian?

The real question is what isn't Sicilian?

Sicilian is neither a dialect nor an accent. It’s not derived from Italian. It’s not spoken only in Sicily. Sicilian (u sicilianu) in Sicilian and siciliana in Italian) is the oldest of the Romance languages derived from Latin, and it’s spoken in sicily and in parts of southern Italy such as Reggio di Calabria and southern Puglia. It’s derived from Latin, with Greek, Arabic, French, Provençal, German, Catalan and Spanish influences.

Sicilian is currently spoken by most of the 5,000,000 inhabitants of Sicily, plus another 2,000,000 Sicilians around the world.

With the predominance of Italian in Italian schools and the media, Sicilian is no longer the first language of many Sicilians. In fact, in urban centers in particular, it's more common to hear standard Italian spoken rather than Sicilian, especially among the younger generation.