With 4. Sicily is named after the Sicels , who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age. Sicily has a rich and unique culture in arts , music , literature , cuisine , and architecture.
Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna , the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world, currently 3, m 11, ft high. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. It is separated from Calabria by the Strait of Messina. It is one of the five Italian autonomous regions and is generally considered part of Southern Italy.
The earliest archaeological record of human activity on the island is from around 14, BC. By around BC, Sicily had three Phoenician and a dozen Greek colonies along its coasts, becoming one of the centers of Magna Graecia. The Norman conquest of southern Italy led to the creation of the County of Sicily in , that was succeeded by Kingdom of Sicily , a state that existed from until under various dynasties, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] and in it was unified with the Kingdom of Naples into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
From the Sicilian Vespers until the Expedition of the Thousand , Sicily was ruled by Aragon and then Spain , either in personal union with the crown or by a cadet branch , with the exception of a period of Savoy and then Habsburg rule in β The island became part of the newly unified Italy in following the Expedition of the Thousand, an invasion led by Giuseppe Garibaldi , and a plebiscite.
Sicily was given special status as an autonomous administrative division on 15 May , 18 days before the Italian institutional referendum. To the north-east, it is separated from Calabria and the rest of the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina , about 3 km 1.
