DESKTOP 2133 - PALERMO, SICILY

Palermo is a city in Insular Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz (flower). Palermo then became a possession of Carthage, before becoming part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. The Greeks named the city Panormus meaning “complete port”. From 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarm, the root for Palermo’s present-day name. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo became the capital of a new kingdom (from 1130 to 1816), the Kingdom of Sicily and the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick II Holy Roman Emperor and Conrad IV of Germany, King of the Romans. Eventually Sicily would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860. 

The population of Palermo urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, while its metropolitan area is the fifth most populated in Italy with around 1.2 million people. In the central area, the city has a population of around 676,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Palermitani or, poetically, panormiti. The languages spoken by its inhabitants are the Italian language, Sicilian language and the Palermitano dialect. Palermo is Sicily’s cultural, economic and touristic capital. It is a city rich in history, culture, art, music and food. Numerous tourists are attracted to the city for its good Mediterranean weather, its renowned gastronomy and restaurants, its Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque churches, palaces and buildings, and its nightlife and music. 

Palermo is the main Sicilian industrial and commercial centre: the main industrial sectors include tourism, services, commerce and agriculture. Palermo currently has an international airport, and a significant underground economy. In fact, for cultural, artistic and economic reasons, Palermo was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and is now among the top tourist destinations in both Italy and Europe. It is the main seat of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale. The city is also going through careful redevelopment, preparing to become one of the major cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area. 

Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitano culture. The Patron Saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia whose Feast Day is celebrated on 15 July. The area attracts significant numbers of tourists each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish markets at the heart of Palermo, known as Vucciria, Ballarò and Capo.

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DESKTOP 1218 - GREEK TEMPLE, SICILY

The Temple of Concordia (Italian: Tempio della Concordia) is an ancient Greek temple located in the Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) in Agrigento (Greek: Akragas) on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy. It is the largest and best-preserved Doric temple in Sicily and one of the best-preserved Greek temples in general, especially of the Doric order.

The temple was built c. 440–430 BC. The well-preserved peristasis of six by thirteen columns stands on top of a crepidoma of four steps (measuring 39.42 m × 16.92 m), and 8.93 m high). The cella measures 28.36 m × 9.4 m. The columns are 6 m high and carved with twenty flutes and harmonious entasis (tapering at the tops of the columns and swelling around the middles). It is constructed, like the nearby Temple of Juno, on a solid base designed to overcome the unevenness of the rocky terrain.

It has been conventionally named after Concordia, the Roman goddess of harmony, for the Roman-era Latin inscription found nearby, which is unconnected with it. The temple was converted into a Christian basilica in the 6th century dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul by San Gregorio delle Rape, bishop of Agrigento and thus survived the destruction of pagan places of worship. The spaces between the columns were filled with walling, altering its Classical Greek form. The division between the cella, the main room where the cult statue would have stood in antiquity, and the opisthodomos, an adjoining room, was destroyed, and the walls of the cella were cut into a series of arches along the nave.

The Christian refurbishments were removed during the restoration of 1785. According to another source, the Prince of Torremuzza transferred the altar elsewhere and began restoration of the classic building in 1788. According to authors of a 2007 article, it is "apart from the Parthenon, the best preserved Doric temple in the world.

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DESKTOP 1099 - SICILIAN SEA

Sicily (Italian: Sicilia) is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It constitutes an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, officially referred to as Regione Siciliana (in Italian, Sicilian Region). Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently 3,329 m high, and one of the most active in the world. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. It has coastline 1,000 km long and a land area 25,706 sq km.

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DESKTOP 953 - ISOLA BELLA, TAORMINA

The Isola Bella ("Beautiful Island") in Sicily, Italy, is without doubt Taormina’s most beautiful beach. It is a pebble beach, set at the foot of the town, fronting the islet of the same name clothed in lush vegetation. The islet is linked to the mainland by a narrow strip of beach which is covered by water at high tide.

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