Q 01/05

Which city is the capital of Sicily?

A) Catania

B) Messina

C) Palermo

D) Syracuse

Answer · why

C) Palermo

About 1.2 million of the island's 4.7 million people live in and around it.

Q 02/05

Sicily takes its name from which Iron Age people who lived in the east of the island?

A) The Sicani

B) The Elymians

C) The Ausones

D) The Sicels

Answer · why

D) The Sicels

The Sicani were there first, arriving (according to Thucydides) from the Iberian Peninsula.

Q 03/05

What was the ancient Greek name for Sicily, referring to its three headlands?

A) Sikania

B) Trinacria

C) Magna Graecia

D) Hesperia

Answer · why

B) Trinacria

The three-legged triskelion on the modern flag still stands for those three capes.

Q 04/05

What is Sicily's most prominent landmark and Europe's tallest active volcano?

A) Mount Etna

B) Stromboli

C) Vulcano

D) Vesuvius

Answer · why

A) Mount Etna

It stood 3,403 metres high as of 2024, roughly two and a half times the height of Vesuvius.

Q 05/05

What separates Sicily from Calabria on the Italian mainland?

A) The Strait of Otranto

B) The Gulf of Taranto

C) The Tyrrhenian Sea

D) The Strait of Messina

Answer · why

D) The Strait of Messina

It narrows to about 3 km at its northern end, and a record suspension bridge across it is now planned for 2032.