I Explored Italy s Muslim Side ️ Sicily

This is couscous, but I'm not in Tunisia or Morocco or anywhere in North Africa. I'm in Italy, and couscous is actually a local dish here on the island of Sicily. For 250 years, Sicily was part of the Islamic empire, and even though this might not seem like a very long time, it was long enough for the Muslims to leave their mark on the island to this day. In this video, we're going to find out what remains of Muslim Sicily in the modern culture, architecture, and food of the island. Let's go. Good morning from the island of Sicily. The very first thing we're going to do today is grab a traditional Sicilian breakfast, which also happens to have Arab roots. So I'm going to try a dish called granita. Granita, vero? Okay, what do you have? Okay, I'll have that. I'll have the strawberry and lemon. And we sell the brioche as part of this. Yes, I want to try it with the brioche. Okay. So the granita is like shaved ice, right? But it's not the classic granita that you cherish in Italy, because in Italy, it's the ice and juice of... Of whatever flavor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay, okay. This is a mix of fresh fruits and fresh products of our land, no? And then we mix with a percent of water. Okay. And we can do this beautiful... It's beautiful, yeah. Is there any place to sit out here? There is a park. I don't know the name of the park. Just through the door? Yeah, yeah, yeah. After the door, there is a park, there is an entrance park, and there is a bench to sit. Oh, okay. That'll be perfect. Yeah. Okay. So how much for these? Five and fifty cents. Okay. This is for you. Grazie, grazie. How do I say goodbye? Ciao. So this is a traditional Sicilian breakfast. Here, we've got the granita, which I got in the two traditional flavors, the lemon and the strawberry. It's served with brioche, or just a roll. They'll eat this any time of the day, but it's most often eaten in the morning. Okay, let's give this a try. Yeah, it's super light, it's not too sugary, and it's fresh. Now, I'm going to try it with a little bit of this brioche, which is very soft, and I was told by the guys it's going to be very filling. The bread is so good, and it's not a bad combination, actually. I was kind of skeptical about it at first, but it's actually quite good. So what does granita have to do with the Muslims? As the story goes, Sicilians had always eaten ice during the summer to kind of cool down, but in the past, it used to be unflavored. So basically, they would have these people whose job it was to climb to the top of Mount Etna, which is the volcano here on the island of Sicily, and they would collect the ice and bring it back down. And when the Arabs took over the island, they taught them a lot about refrigeration, so they were able to keep that ice cooler for longer. And they also introduced the idea of adding a flavor, of adding some kind of juice to this ice. And so the granita was born. The first example of Muslim architecture that I want to show you guys is the famous Palermo Cathedral that actually used to be a mosque during the times of the Islamic empire, and has since been converted into a cathedral. Besides the very Muslim horseshoe arches that you can see behind me here in the entranceway, there is one hidden gem from when it used to be a mosque that you can still see today. And that is right outside the entrance here. The leftmost pillar still has a little Quranic verse on it, written in Arabic. Wow, I'm honestly surprised I actually found it. All right, let's go in. I mean, it was beautiful, but honestly, for a structure that used to be a mosque, I was expecting to see a little bit more of the Islamic side of it, but it just kind of looks like a regular cathedral here in Italy. It's much more interesting on the outside. Much more interesting. Spoiler alert, I'm in China, so you can look forward to the very exciting series we have coming up here. 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Click the link in the description or go to betterhelp.com slash 20 camels and get 10% off your first month of therapy. This structure behind me is another excellent example of something that was built during the era of Muslim rule, but then converted into something Christian. Nowadays, it's known as the Norman Palace, but originally it was a 9th century, so we're talking 800s, Arab or Muslim residence. So it was probably someone who was really wealthy, who was living here in Sicily at the time, who maybe ruled or owned a lot of land here on the island, something like that. And then a couple of hundred years later, when the Muslims lost the island of Sicily to the Christians, the Normans more specifically, who come from Normandy in France, instead of destroying what the Arabs had built and building something new, the king, the Norman king, kept the place the way it was. And in reverence of what the Muslims brought to the island and of their sophistication and their architecture, he converted what used to be a residence into his own palace. The king we're talking about is King Roger II, who was very famous for the religious tolerance that he ruled with and for all the beautiful structures that he had commissioned, a lot of which were built with the help of some Muslim, mostly North African, architects. So this structure is one of them. Let's check it out. Yep, I can very clearly see how this used to be an Arab residence. It's very typical with the rooms surrounding a central courtyard. This is very cool to see. And then, of course, when King Roger converted this place into a royal palace, these became the royal apartments. But the real treasure of the palace is the private royal chapel that King Roger had built inside of it. You can really get a feel for how much respect and honestly admiration the Christian king of Sicily had at the time for Muslim culture. From the colorful mosaics whose geometric patterns reminded me a lot of those in Andalusia and Morocco, to the ceiling that had these vaulted honeycombed structures on it made out of wood that I just recently learned are called maqarnas or maqarnas. I don't really know how to pronounce it. But that is a very commonly seen structure in Islamic architecture at the time. You'll see very similar structures in, again, Andalusia and Morocco. Very cool to see it all the way here in Sicily as well. And even more impressive that it was made out of wood. And when I zoomed in super closely, I also noticed that there was some Arabic script on the ceiling as well. So that was really cool. It was just like the perfect marriage between a Christian chapel, a Christian church, and honestly probably some of the best Muslim imagery and design that was around at the time. And even though the Normans did take the island of Sicily away from the Muslims, I think there's no better form of flattery and respect than imitation. I just did not expect all this stuff to be in places like Sicily in Italy. It's crazy. This is the Mercato Ballaro, one of the oldest markets here in Sicily. I'm not surprised that this place feels like a giant souk or a Arabic style market with all the awnings, the narrow streets, and the vendors trying to get you to buy whatever they're selling. It's said that the origins of this market can be traced all the way back to the Islamic empire. It's very cool. Very interesting vibe. Okay, I've just been brought in to try cheese and honey. Wow, it's good. Which one? Which one? You see? I can't bring that many. I can't bring that many. One, one. This is how they get you to buy things. Spicy. Okay, spicy. Two. Okay. Okay. Ten for two. No. Five. Five. Five. Grazie. Grazie. Arrivederci. Grazie. Ciao. Ciao. I didn't think I was gonna buy cheese today, but he literally just pulled me in. He made me buy his cheese. That's very souk-like behavior, I have to say. Wow, look at this. Around every corner here in Sicily, you can find something that makes you think, hmm, that looks kind of Muslim-influenced. I don't know. Could be wrong. Looks suspiciously like a mezzanine for a mosque. But again, completely spitballing here. You never know, though. I have noticed a lot of Tunisians here in Sicily, in Palermo so far. I heard him listening to something in the Tunisian dialect, and I was like, no way. He must be Tunisian. That was cool. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, I'm gonna try Sicily's couscous. I even found a that's called couscous. So, my expectations are high. Do you have couscous? Yes. The fish, vegetable, fish and vegetable, or meat? Fish. Okay. One? One, yeah. Take away? For here. Okay. Sit down? Yeah. And one cerveza, birra. Okay, perfect. Grazie, grazie. Okay, so I've got my plate of couscous. I'm super excited to try it. It's super good. Wow. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be this good, but this easily rivals any North African couscous I've tried. It's very flavorful. It's got a nice sauce, whatever kind sauce they added to it, because you can see it's a little bit red. Overall, 10 out of 10. It's very good. It's just not spicy, like the Tunisian couscous that I'm used to trying. I actually had no idea before, like a couple months ago, that Sicily made its own couscous. I thought it was only a North African thing, and it was actually brought up to the island of Sicily from North Africa when the Islamic empire expanded here into Sicily. And one of the most interesting things about the Sicilian couscous is that typically amongst couscous-making cultures in North Africa, it's usually made with beef, chicken, or lamb, some kind of meat. It's not usually made with fish, but here in Sicily, they make it with fish, they make it with seafood like mussels and shrimp and other things like that, and that makes it quite unique, other than the fact that it's a couscous that's native to Europe. It was so good. And the beer, with the beer, how much? We are about to enter the Church of Saint Giovanni, which apparently used to be a mosque. It was built in the 1100s, and I haven't seen anything of the church yet, but the fact that these horseshoe archways are leading me to it gets me pretty excited. Let's see. Wow, this looks super old. Oh my gosh, this is incredible. Look at this, and it's stunning. Look at the column work. This has got to be just super old, and I wonder if this thing in the middle was originally some kind of well or something. Let's see. Yep, looks like it. Wow, what a scene. Oh, look at the domes. Look at those beautiful red domes. Yep, you can clearly see on the right here, this used to be the main part of the mosque, and a tower right on the side from which they would have the calls to prayer. All right, let's check the inside. I just took the train to a little town called Cefalu, about an hour away from Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily, and I came here to show you guys something that I couldn't find in Palermo, but is very Muslim and left over from the Islamic empire. So hopefully we'll be able to find it here. Fingers crossed. This is the first smaller village I'm visiting here in Sicily, and I really like it actually. It's cute. The streets aren't as busy. It's calmer. I would be down to visit more places like this. Super nice. Okay, apparently this is it. Let's check it out. So the Italians refer to this place as a lavatoio, basically a washroom, and apparently in more recent history, it was used by sailor women to scrub their clothes and wash them in these basins. But originally, during the era of the Islamic empire, this would have been a hammam, or a wash house, or a bath house, where people would have bathed. And as is characteristic of a lot of really old hammams, they'll harness some kind of naturally occurring spring or river that's already running through the land, and they'll build the hammam right on top of it. And that's the case here. There's actually a river that runs through, and then the way they engineered the bathhouse, the dirty water will actually run out and into the sea. Pretty ingenious. But it's so cool. It's so beautiful. And it's very interesting to look at too. You've got a bunch of lion head spouts made out of cast iron over here. It's just very unique. I've never seen one like this before. And then the spiral staircase on the way down, like, feels like another world. Feels like a fairy tale place. It's very cool. Well guys, that's it for our Sicily adventure. I hope you enjoyed the video, and I hope you learned something new about some of the Islamic influence left here on the island in the form of the food, the architecture, and the culture here. Don't forget to give this video a like, donate to my Patreon if you want to support more adventures, and follow me if you want to see more videos like this. I'll see you guys in the next one.