EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis) I have to admit I am chronically fascinated by Southern Italy and Sicily. As a Greek history buff, I have been learning new facts about this region every month, every year… The history is rich, and the culture is even richer. Did you know that up to the 12th century AD, all areas south of Napoli and Ancona were part of the Byzantine Empire? Did you also know that Southern Sicily has more ancient Greek temples and theaters than the Peloponnese and Attica combined? Let me stop here… But the biggest living monument is the “grecanico” language, a Greek dialect spoken by villagers today along with calabrese and standard Italian…
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Quite fascinating that both identity, culture, and language have survived in an area that has essentially been under “Vatican occupation” since the days of the Byzantine empire…