An Alitalia passenger, en route to Catania from Rome on June 17, became alarmed when she couldn’t find Sicily on her in-flight magazine map. Her bewilderment was compounded by the fact that smaller islands in the area, such as Sardinia and Malta, were clearly shown on the Ulisse magazine map. The magazine’s editor, Aldo Canale, said the missing island was “just a silly printing mistake.” According to guardian.co.uk, “A Radical party senator, Riccardo Villari, took up the case on behalf of Sicily’s 5 million inhabitants and demanded the intervention of the transport ministry. ‘Silvio Berlusconi based his election campaign on saving Alitalia and there has been an enormous advertising campaign to relaunch its image … only to result in unpleasant errors,’ he told Italian news agency AGI.”
“Sicily is an autonomous region of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 square kilometres (9,926 sq mi)…It is also the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, several much smaller islands surrounding it are also considered to be part of Sicily…Throughout much of its history, Sicily has been considered a crucial strategic location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. The area was highly regarded as part of Magna Graecia, with Cicero describing Siracusa as the greatest and most beautiful city of all Ancient Greece” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicily).
Article by Bill Norrington
