9 Best Sights in Sicily, Italy

A vast archaeological site in a remote location, Morgantina long provided rich pickings for illegal excavators: when Italian detectives raided an 18th-century villa in Enna belonging to a Sicilian art dealer, they discovered more than 30,000 ancient artifacts, most of them plundered from Morgantina. In 1986, American archaeologist Malcolm Bell, director of the University of Princeton’s excavations at Morgantina, established that the heads, hands, and feet of 6th-century BC Greek statues of goddesses from a private collection exhibited at the Getty museum outside of Los Angeles also derived from Morgantina. Identified as Demeter and Persephone, the statues were acroliths, with wooden bodies (long rotted away) and marble extremities. Returned to Sicily in 2009 after a lengthy legal battle, they are currently displayed at a small museum in the village of Aidone, beautifully lit and hauntingly "dressed" by Sicilian fashion designer Marella Ferrara.

Equally powerful is the so-called Aphrodite Getty, or Venus of Malibu, bought by the Getty in 1987 for $18 million on the basis of provenance documents that were later proved to have been forgeries. Returned to Sicily in 2011, the hefty maturity of her body, revealed by wind-blown drapery, has led most scholars to identify her as the Mother Goddess Demeter. Other objects returned from the Getty include the Eupolmos Silver, a set of ritual dining ware, and a head of Hades, identified as belonging to Morgantina when a student working in the site archives discovered a terra-cotta curl of blue-tinted "hair" and suspected that it belonged to a head on display in the Getty. When the curl was sent to the museum, it was found to be a perfect fit, and in 2016 the head was returned to Sicily.

In 2005, after four years of painstaking restoration in Rome (and several attempts to keep it there in the capital), the Dancing Satyr, the ancient Greek statue found by fishermen off the town's coast, found its permanent home here in the deconsecrated church of Sant’Egidio. Exquisitely lit and larger than life, it is a truly extraordinary work (despite missing both arms and a leg) caught mid-air, mid-dance in the throes of ecstasy, with the musculature and grace of movement associated nowadays with contemporary ballet. Scholars think it probably formed part of a group with other dancing Maenads, lost when the ship carrying them capsized in the Sicilian Channel. Ancient Greek bronze statues are extremely rare—only five have survived—as bronze was precious, and most were melted down. The satyr was created using the lost wax process, a technology designed to use as little bronze as possible: a clay model of the statue was made and fired, and when it cooled, it was covered with a layer of wax, followed by another layer of clay, this time with several holes. Then liquid bronze (heated to something like 1800°F) was poured through the holes. The melted wax then ran out, and the clay core turned to sand, leaving a bronze shell that would then have been polished. Other finds from under the sea are displayed in the museum, the most intriguing of which is the bronze foot of an elephant.

This museum comprises the private collection of Baron Enrico Pirajno di Mandralisca, a member of a local aristocratic family. Throughout his life, he collected antiques, artwork, fossils, ancient ceramics, and various other geological and natural history objects to form this extensive collection. His library and other items were eventually donated to the town and became the Museo Mandaralisca. The most significant piece of art here has to be the Portrait of an Unknown Man by Antonello da Messina. Monikered as the Sicilian Mona Lisa, the mysteriously smirking man is one of the early Renaissance artist's masterpeices.

Dating from the 18th century but closed for most of the last four decades, the Palazzo Butera has been transformed by its gallerista owners, Massimo and Francesca Valsecchi, into one of Sicily’s (and Italy’s) most imaginative museum collections. Its labyrinthine rooms now display a heady mixture of old and new art. The collection’s strength lies in its bold juxtapositions, with works by an international roster of experimental modern artists of the likes of Gilbert and George, and David Tremlett, exhibited alongside classical landscapes and graceful Sicilian furniture from the 19th century. Painted ceilings remain from the palace's Baroque beginnings, some of them artfully peeled back to reveal the wooden construction behind them. Diverse temporary exhibitions displayed on the ground floor add to the mix. There’s a lot to take in, but if you need a break from all the hectic creativity, head for the terrace, accessed from the second floor, which provides benches and a walk around one of the two courtyards as well as views over the harbor. You can get even better views from the viewing platform reached from the roof, while further up, steps lead to a lofty view of the harbor, Monte Pellegrino, and, inland, the whole of the Conca d’Oro bowl in which the city sits.

Palazzo Bellomo looks unlike any other palace in Ortigia, a formidable 13th-century building, whose austere minimalist facade (with scarcely a window) could almost seem contemporary but dates from a time when Sicily was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Conflicts between Emperor Frederick II and the Pope were rife—the Pope was encouraging the mercantile cities Venice and Genoa to make war on Sicily, promising Siracusa as prize. That defense was paramount is not surprising. The Gothic upper floor was added, along with the courtyard—a perfect Shakespearean film set—in the 15th century. Highlight of the collection is an Annunciation by Antonello da Messina, painted for a church in Palazzolo Acreide, with the Hyblaean mountains visible through the windows behind the angel and the Madonna. Early Christian sculpture and a fine collection of altarpieces and icons are fascinating evidence of the enduring Byzantine and Gothic influence in Sicily. While the rest of Italy was swept by the Renaissance, Siracusa’s artists were still painting heavily stylized Byzantine or Gothic works.

One of Bagheria's most impressive palaces, Villa Cattolica has been meticulously renovated and converted into a gallery devoted to the artist Renato Guttuso (1911–87), who was born in the town. Guttuso's fierce, expressionist style and vivid sense of color made him one of Sicily's most renowned modern artists, and the gallery traces his career from his earliest sketches in the 1920s and 1930s to his later bold canvases, including his last work, a huge collective portrait of his mistresses and muses. Guttuso started his career painting carretti (farmer's carts) in the traditional style and the first rooms feature a collection of painted carts. The gallery also hosts work by Guttuso's peers and contemporaries, and a separate building holds an exhibition of Italian film posters, including one for the film Kaos, designed by Guttuso. The artist's tomb lies in the villa's garden.

One of Italy’s most celebrated Renaissance painters, Caravaggio spent a good deal of time in Sicily toward the end of his life, while on the run after committing a murder in Rome. The artwork he left behind includes two on display at this regional museum. The scandal-prone artist is best known for his religious works, which utilize dramatic shadows and heavenly lighting. The two here are the highlight of the collection, though there are also some interesting archaeological pieces salvaged from shipwrecks and several works by Antonello da Messina.

Trapani's foremost museum collection is located in a former Carmelite monastery that was attached to the important religious site of Santuario dell’Annunziata. The art sections take in some excellent examples of medieval and Renaissance art, including statuary by Antonello Gagini and a painting by Titian. Among the archaeological exhibits is a selection of low-key finds from Mozia and Selinunte. There's also a guillotine from 1800, and a good collection of memorabilia from Garibaldi's Sicilian campaign against the Bourbons in 1860.

The usual entrance to the museum is in the Villa Pepoli public garden; when this is closed enter from Via Madonna, behind the garden.

Housed in this late-15th-century Catalan Gothic palace with Renaissance elements is the Galleria Regionale. Among its treasures are the Annunciation (1474), a painting by Sicily's prominent Renaissance master Antonello da Messina (1430–79), and an arresting fresco spanning two floors (and visible from both the ground floor and a first-floor gallery) by an unknown 15th-century painter, titled The Triumph of Death, a macabre depiction of the plague years.