SYRACUSE, Sicily -- Sicily is an ideal place to ponder the fate of civilizations and to reflect on the future. This island off the boot of Italy, with a population of 5 million, has been a crossroads of civilizations for almost three millennia. The Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Catalans, French, Austrians and, of course, successive Italian regimes have all passed through and left their mark.
Syracuse once was one of the most thriving and influential centers of Greek civilization. In the center of the "modern" city, the magnificent architecture of the palaces and churches covers Romanesque, Norman, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.
Sicily is famous, or rather infamous, for being home to the Mafia. But, as magnificent and rich as Sicily is, with a really hospitable people, it is not just the presence of the Mafia that suggests that all is far from well in Sicily, or indeed the rest of Italy.