X-Nico

20 unusual facts about sicily


1944 in organized crime

September 16 - Leaders of the Blocco del popolo (The Popular Front) in Sicily, the communist Girolamo Li Causi and socialist Michele Pantaleone, went to speak to the landless labourers at an election rally in Villalba, challenging Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini in his own personal fiefdom.

Carmelina Moscato

Born in Mississauga, Ontario to Sicilian-born parents, Moscato began playing soccer at the age of four when she started playing for Dixie SC.

Dago Creek

The name derives from the numerous Sicilian fishermen who would anchor in the protected waters during closed fishing periods and collectively celebrate their heritage with plenty of food and wine.

Frank Interlandi

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Interlandi was a self-described "Sicilian."

Grevillea alpina

In 2003, it was reported that the fungal disease Phytophthora palmivora had been detected in plant nurseries in Sicily, leading to root rot and death of potted Grevillea cultivars.

Italian submarine Enrico Toti

1- patrol the mediterranean sea with special attention to the Channel of Sicily during the Cold War; for this reason their main base was the Military Arsenal of Augusta (Syracuse);

Kamarina

Kamarina, Sicily, an ancient city of Sicily, founded by Syracuse in 599 BC

Lancia 3 RO

In North Africa and Sicily with the top of the cab cut away and lower sideboards the Lancia 3 Ro became well suited for desert warfare serving as a self-propelled gun porting the Cannone da 90/53 as well as the 100/17 howitzer.

Lucy Tyler-Sharman

In 1994 she won an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship as a sprinter and represented Australia in the World Championships in Sicily finishing fourth.

Motobomba

The FFF was subsequently used in attacks against invasion shipping at Bône in Algeria on April 16, 1943 and at Syracuse during the Allied invasion of Sicily later that year.

Nino Bixio

At Bronte, on August 4, 1860, the recovered Bixio bloodily repressed one of these revolts with two battalions of Redshirts.

Operation White

The Skua managed to crash-land near Syracuse, Sicily, just before its fuel tanks became empty, and after being fired upon by an anti-aircraft artillery unit of the Italian army.

Otto Kerner, Jr.

He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for merit and the Soldier's Medal for rescuing a drowning soldier off the coast of Sicily.

Rock Partridge

While it generally manages to hold its own, the status of the Sicilian population may be more precarious and certainly deserves attention (Randi 2006).

Roman Catholic Diocese of Patti

Count Ruggiero founded at Patti a Benedictine abbey, and in 1131 the antipope Anacletus II made Patti an episcopal see, uniting it with the Abbey of Lipari.

Silvermane

Silvio Manfredi, nicknamed "Silvermane" for his near-white hair, is a professional criminal originally from Corleone, Sicily that started his criminal career as a racketeer in an organized crime group called the Maggia, eventually becoming a criminal organizer and mastermind.

SS Empire Cameron

Empire Cameron was on a voyage from Alexandria, Egypt, joining the convoy at Oran and leaving at her destination of Augusta, Italy.

Tortorici

Located in the Nebrodi regional park, Tortorici borders the following municipalities: Bronte, Castell'Umberto, Floresta, Galati Mamertino, Longi, Randazzo, San Salvatore di Fitalia, Sinagra, Ucria.

Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld

He was a friend of the poet Johann Gottfried Seume, whom he set out to accompany in 1801 on a journey to Syracuse, Sicily, but separated from him after travelling no further than Vienna.

Zelkova sicula

The only known population, found in 1991, consists of 200–250 plants growing on the Monti Iblei area, in Buccheri, in southeast Sicily near Syracuse.


2005–06 Serie C2

Division C2/A was mainly composed by Northern Italy and Sardinian teams, whereas division C2/B included North-Central and Central Italy teams, with the exception of two teams from Campania (Benevento and Cavese), and division C2/C was represented by teams hailing from Central-Southern Italy and Sicily.

A.C.R.D. Acicatena

Associazione Calcio Riunite Dilettantistica Acicatena is an Italian association football club located in Aci Catena, Sicily.

Álvaro de Bazán, 2nd Marquis of Santa Cruz

The other male of the family, Fernando, became Chancellor, Rector, of the University of Salamanca, and later, after ecclesiastical jobs at Seville and Cordoba, Archbishop of Palermo, Sicily, Italy .

Amatus of Montecassino

Amatus describes the Norman sieges of Bari and Salerno, the conquest of Sicily, and the career of Robert Guiscard, as well as the Gregorian Reforms seen from the papal point-of-view, interspersed with reports of miracles and prophecies.

Ancient Greek sculpture

The territories of ancient Greece, except for Sicily and southern Italy, contained abundant supplies of fine marble, with Pentelic and Parian marble the most highly prized, along with that from modern Prilep in Macedonia, and various sources in modern Turkey.

Angelo Bruno

Born in Villalba, Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, Bruno emigrated to the United States in his teens and settled in Philadelphia.

Antonio del Duca

Antonio del Duca or Lo Duca (Cefalù 1491 — Rome 1564) was the Sicilian friar whose persistent campaign for an official veneration of the "Seven Angelic Princes" was partly answered in the dedication of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, constructed to the orders of Pope Pius IV within the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian.

Benedict T. Viviano

In a city of French foundation but mainly German population with a strong African American minority, his family belonged to the city's community of Italian people, itself divided into Lombards and Sicilians.

Besana

Initially with almonds from Puglia and Sicily region (Italy) and in the early 60’s with Brazil nuts, Pecan nuts, dried fruit, seeds, pistachios, pine kernels, Macadamia nuts and finally the snack lines.

CAID

Qaid (also caid or kaid), various forms of responsible official found in places ranging from the Kingdom of Sicily to rural North Africa

Calliostoma conulus

This marine species occurs in European waters, off Spain and Portugal and in the Mediterranean Sea off Greece and Sicily; in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores.

Danilo Dolci

He was helped out from time to time, predominantly by English families whose fortunes had been made with the sweet Marsala wine manufactured in Sicily.

Dwarf elephant

Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta (at Ghar Dalam), Crete (in Nomos Chanion at Vamos, Stylos and in a now under water cave on the coast), Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese Islands.

Edward Rooker

Among Rooker's early works are a view on the Thames from Somerset House (1750), and a view of Vauxhall Gardens (1751), both after Canaletto; a view of the Parthenon for Dalton's 'Views of Sicily and Greece' (1751), and a section of St. Paul's Cathedral, decorated according to the

Edward Sciandra

Edward "Eddie The Conductor" Sciandra, was born in Montedoro, Sicily on November 13, 1912 and he died on July 13, 2003 in Hallandale, Florida.

Enna

In the time of Agathocles we find Enna for a time subject to that tyrant, but when the Agrigentines under Xenodicus began to proclaim the restoration of the other cities of Sicily to freedom, the Ennaeans were the first to join their standard, and opened their gates to Xenodicus, 309 BC.

Filarete of Calabria

Saint Filarete of Calabria (also the gardener) (c. 10201070) he was born in Palermo in 1020, into a family of Calabrian origin deported to Sicily by the Saracens, and subsequently released.

Francesco Brancati

Francesco Brancati (1607 in Sicily – 1671 in China) was an Italian Jesuit missionary.

Frederick II of Sicily

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who technically was Frederick I of Sicily but the regnal number II was used of him throughout his various realms

Giuseppe Castellano

He became convinced that the Mafia was the strongest political and social force on Sicily to be reckoned with.

Giuseppe Di Cristina

Giuseppe Di Cristina (April 22, 1923 – May 30, 1978) was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy.

Harpalus anxius

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: Andorra, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Cyprus, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Norway, Novaya Zemlya, Portugal, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

Illyrius

The children of Polyphemus all migrated from Sicily and ruled over the peoples named after them, the Celts, the Illyrians, and the Galatians.

James II of Aragon

Napoleón (b. Sicily, 1288 – m. 1338), Lord of Joyosa Guarda (Gioiosaguardia) and Acquafredda (in Sardinia); married a daughter of a Majorcan named Guillermo Robert.

John Thomas Jones

From Naples the troops sailed for Sicily, and, on the dethronement of the king, garrisoned Messina and Melazzo.

Kingdom of Southern Italy

A kingdom comprising Southern Italy prior to breaking up into the Kingdom of Naples comprising mainland southern Italy, and the Kingdom of Sicily comprising the island of Sicily.

Military of ancient Carthage

Beginning with the reign of King Hanno the Navigator in 480 BC, Carthage began regularly employing Iberian infantry and Balearic slingers to support Carthaginian spearmen in Sicily, a practice which would continue until the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.

Morgantina treasure

The Morgantina treasure is a set of 16 pieces of Greek silverware with details in gold dating from the third century BC, which was illegally excavated from Morgantina, an Ancient Greek city in Sicily, near modern Aidone.

Necropolis of Pantalica

Pantalica is located on a limestone promontory surrounded by a deep gorge formed by the Anapo and Calcinara rivers between the towns of Ferla and Sortino in south-eastern Sicily.

Niccolò Turrisi Colonna

Niccolò Turrisi Colonna (August 10, 1817 - May 13, 1889), baron of Buonvicino, was a Sicilian politician from Palermo.

Nicholas Scibetta

He was the only son born to first generation emigrants, a Mr. Scibetta from Cammarata in the province of Agrigento, Sicily and an Italian-American woman Mrs. Zicarelli from Bayonne, New Jersey.

Pierre de Brézé

He had made his name in the English wars when in 1433 he joined with Yolande, queen of Sicily, the constable Richmond and others, in chasing from power Charles VII's minister La Trémoille.

Polizzi

Polizzi Generosa, a town in the Province of Palermo on the island of Sicily, Italy

Reggiane Re.2001

Finally, on 4 May 1942 it moved to Caltagirone in Sicily, with 18 Reggiane under command of Colonnello Bajlon.

Richard J. Burke

He was married on October 19, 1940 to Josephina Battaglia the daughter of Carmelo Battaglia of Monte Maggiore Belsito, Palermo, Sicily, and Antonia Fasulo of Burgio, Agrigento, Sicily.

Salvatore Contorno

Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno (born May 28, 1946) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta.

Salvatore Lima

Lima arranged an unusually lucrative concession to collect taxes in Sicily to Antonio Salvo and Ignazio Salvo, two wealthy mafia-cousins from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani, in exchange for their loyalty to Salvo Lima and the Andreotti faction of the DC.

Sebastián Raval

In Sicily, he again challenged a musician, Achille Falcone, to a contest; it was first decided in Falcone's favour but, after some appeals, in Raval's.

Seguenzia monocingulata

It was originally described by Seguenza in fossil form during the Miocene in Calabria and during the Pliocene in Sicily.

Seventh United States Army

The headquarters of the Seventh Army remained relatively inactive at Palermo, Sicily, and Algiers until January 1944, when Lieutenant General Mark Clark was assigned as commander and the Army began planning for the invasion of southern France.

Sidney Sonnino

Leopoldo Franchetti's half of the report, Political and Administrative Conditions in Sicily, was an analysis of the Mafia in the nineteenth century that is still considered authoritative today.

Siege of Lilybaeum

The city of Lilybaeum (modern Marsala), lying on the western end of Sicily, connected the island with Africa and provided Carthage with an advanced harbor on the route to Sardinia.

Southern Italy

The peninsular territories, contemporaneously called Kingdom of Sicily, but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it.

The Sicilian

He is a very close personal friend of the Guiliano family, a mentor for Turi, and a man who caters to the Friends of the Friends (the word Mafia is rarely spoken in Sicily).

Valdrada of Sicily

Valdrada of Sicily, was a Sicilian Princess and the Dogaressa of Venice by marriage to the Doge Jacopo Tiepolo (r. 1229-1249).

Via Valeria

A second Via Valeria, the Via Valeria of Sicily, connected Messina and Siracusa.

Walter of the Mill

He was long thought to be an Englishman who came to Sicily with Peter of Blois and Stephen du Perche at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily and Margaret.

William Steger

He flew fifty-six combat missions piloting British Spitfire aircraft in the Tunisian, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns.