“Sicily is the key to everything,” said Goethe. It is the largest island in the Mediterranean. It is an intermediary between Europe and Africa. It is the gateway between East and West, the link between the Latin and Greek worlds. Phoenicians and Greeks, Carthaginians and the Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, Spaniards and French - all left their mark on Sicily. Why did Sicily become such a crossroads of cultures? Which of the many legends about it are true and which are not? And why the history of the island turned out to be so tragic? Sir John Julius Norwich talks about this in his fascinating book.