After twenty years of studies, research and restoration, the “stone giant” of ancient Akragas has risen again. The “Telamon”, one of the colossal anthropomorphic statues that supported the architrave of the temple of Olympian Zeus, the Olympieion, symbol of the Valley of the Temples, has been brought back to an upright position. The statue, almost 8 meters high, is supported by a 12 meter steel structure to which shelves are anchored where the individual pieces are placed. The entire museum project of the Olympian area, which has so far cost 500 thousand euros of Park funds, includes the upcoming reconstruction on the ground of a part of the entablature and the frame of the temple, in order to make a more concrete idea of the colossal dimensions and uniqueness of the monument but, at the same time, protect the finds. In 2004, the Valley of the Temples Park began an…

2023 was a good year for tourism in the Sicily region. The overall numbers of national and international arrivals recorded 15 million. A result that led the Region to be elected, for last year, queen of Italian tourist destinations. Strengthened by this, Sicily returns to the spaces of the BIT in Milan with a stand of great visual and emotional impact, designed by the internal staff of the Region’s Tourism Department, measuring 1015 m2 characterized by large LED walls and mirrored surfaces: a large marketplace made available to visitors to participate in appointments, meetings and events that will highlight the attractions of a constantly evolving territory, full of stimuli, products and naturalistic wonders that have underlined its success for years. There will be 62 workstations available, occupied by 31 agencies and tour operators, 29 accommodation facilities and 2 restaurants. Present at the stand were the president of the Sicilian Region…

From 22 December, in time for the Christmas holidays, it will be possible to find the second issue of Amazing Sicily in free distribution at the Falcone Borsellino airport in Palermo and, for the first time, at the Fontanarossa airport in Catania!The cover and main article of the Sicilian travel magazine are dedicated to Palermo and its Arab-Norman Route, a UNESCO heritage site. In the nature section you can discover the Etna Natural Park, while in the pages dedicated to culture we could only celebrate Agrigento, which will be Capital of Culture in 2025. Even in our winter issue we could not leave our readers without images of a beautiful beach : this is why we went to Tindari, to make known everything about the legend of the Black Madonna.Erice is the protagonist of the new “villages” section, while for lovers of wine tourism we talk about Nerello Mascalese. An…

The Palermo airport hosts six great works by the artists Francesco Domilici and Arrigo Musti From September to December 2023, Falcone Borsellino Airport hosts IMPOP Archetypes, a contemporary art exhibition set up along the large corridor that connects the arrivals of the Palermo airport with the subway station. The exhibition consists of six works, each measuring 2 by 3 meters, a synthesis of photography and painting by the artists Francesco Domilici and Arrigo Musti, and is curated by Domenico De Chirico and Aldo Gerbino. Francesco Domilici brings to the stage some of the archetypes for which the Mediterranean area is historically recognizable in the collective imagination: to do so, he draws, with his photographs, from a reservoir of images of rural and maritime panoramas, with the professions connected to them.Arrigo Musti uses these images as a support to add a lysergic and brilliant painting, made with enamels, which refers to symbols,…

Torrisi: “A significant increase in flights to satisfy the expectations and needs of passengers” SAC announces that there will be 26,312 aircraft movements expected for winter of 2023/2024, compared to 21,674 thousand last season, numbers that mark a significant increase of 20% in flights and activity at Catania airport. The data announced by the company that manages the airports of Catania and Comiso, heralds a general strengthening of Sicilian infrastructure for the 2023/2024 winter season. The strengthening of SAC’s offer is due to four factors: the increase in the number of operations of the Ryanair company by almost 25% compared to last winter (10,574 movements against 8,438), the increase in flights of the Hungarian carrier Wizz Air (4,526 movements against 3,445, +31%), and of the two Italian companies ITA Airways (4,144 movements against 3,662, +13%), and Aeroitalia. Aeroitalia itself, which began its activity at the end of last season with…

150% of regional contributions for film productions must be reinvested in Sicily According to the latest report by Symbola Foundation and Unioncamere, published in 2023, the cultural and creative supply chain in Italy has generated an added value of 95.5 billion euros (+6.8% compared to the previous year). Overall, for every euro of added value produced by cultural and creative activities, another 1.8 are activated in different economic sectors, such as tourism, transport and Made in Italy, for a value of 176.4 billion euros. Sicily is among the regions that have benefited most from this growth, thanks also to the interest generated by successful films and TV series which have produced a boom in searches and bookings by national and, above all, international tourists. “In recent years, our land has been the setting for several TV series and film productions”, explains Dhebora Mirabelli, president of Confapi Sicilia. “In the past,…

Sicily is rich in culture, landscapes and centuries of history and transformations. The Arab conquest marked a fundamental stage for the region, for this reason “Arab Mediterranean – Sapiens, one planet” on Saturday 2 December at 9.45pm on Rai 3 dedicated the episode to the island. The Italian geologist, scientific communicator and essayist Mario Tozzi recounted the splendor of the Arab-Norman culture in Palermo, on the trail of what today is a hidden world, made above all of suggestions of history, architecture and geology. The program followed the course of the water and the history of the rocks, telling with particular attention the great engineering skills that the Arabs demonstrated in transforming an uncultivated plain like that of Palermo into the Conca d’Oro, famous throughout the world for its citrus groves. Are the peoples of the Mediterranean the result of the mixing of people over the centuries? Has coexistence between…

Sicily, with its territories, its coasts, its favorable climate, its inhabitants and its food products, is increasingly appreciated overseas thanks to TV series and films. These works manage to immerse fans of the show so much that they become curious about the area in which the action takes place, leaving amazement and wonder. An example from last year is “The White Lotus”, an American series in which the protagonists of the second season stay in a hotel in the city of Taormina and take the opportunity to tour the island. The series offers evocative landscapes, and has enchanted viewers by increasing departures to the city of Taormina, with tourists often choosing long stays, staying several days to visit the cities of Palermo and Catania.Also recently released is the TV series “I Leoni di Sicilia”, based on the novel by the author Stefania Auci, which intertwines the path of the commercial…

2023 is the year of the rebirth of tourism in Sicily. This is the data that emerges from the TeC Palermo 2023 conference, dedicated to Tourism and Homes in the Mediterranean, now in its second edition.The event saw, among many others, the presence of the FIAIP Palermo president Marco Burrascano, of the FIAIP national vice president with responsibility for the tourism sector Leonardo Piccoli, of the vice mayor of Palermo with responsibility for the budget Maria Carolina Varchi, of the Tourism councilor of the Sicilian Region Elvira Amata, the mayors of Bagheria, Filippo Tripoli, and of Terrasini, Giosuè Maniaci, the president of the Palermo-Enna Chamber of Commerce Alessandro Albanese, the president of Gesap – Palermo International Airport Salvatore Burrafato and the market team manager – Booking. com Roberta Di Maria.TeC Palermo 2023 enhances and promotes hotel and non-hotel tourism in the Mediterranean area, highlighting how Sicily is the largest and…

Our travel magazine was given to tour operators visiting Sicily for the VII Extra-hotel Tourism Exchange of Confesercenti Sicily. Amazing Sicily was invited to the VII BTE – Extra-hotel Tourism Exchange of Confesercenti Sicily, which took place for the first time in Palermo, at the Cruise Terminal of the Port.The BTE, which was held from 10 to 12 November, saw a packed program of B2B meetings between over 150 entrepreneurs and 20 tour operators selected across Europe. This year’s buyers came from France, Spain, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey and Portugal. The tour operators landed in Sicily a few days earlier to be able to visit various locations in the region, to see and experience first-hand the tourist attraction factors and the possible experiences to offer to their customers. They went to discover the territory of Santo Stefano di Camastra, also taking part in a ceramic…