1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Sicily
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Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous Region of Italy, along with surrounding minor islands, Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, the island has a typical Mediterranean climate. The earliest archaeological evidence of activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. It became part of Italy in 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, a revolt led by Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Italian unification, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region after the Italian constitutional referendum of 1946. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine. It is also home to important archaeological and ancient sites, such as the Necropolis of Pantalica, the Valley of the Temples, Sicily has a roughly triangular shape, earning it the name Trinacria. To the east, it is separated from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina, about 3 km wide in the north, and about 16 km wide in the southern part. The northern and southern coasts are each about 280 km long measured as a line, while the eastern coast measures around 180 km. The total area of the island is 25,711 km2, the terrain of inland Sicily is mostly hilly and is intensively cultivated wherever possible. Along the northern coast, the ranges of Madonie,2,000 m, Nebrodi,1,800 m. The cone of Mount Etna dominates the eastern coast, in the southeast lie the lower Hyblaean Mountains,1,000 m. The mines of the Enna and Caltanissetta districts were part of a leading sulphur-producing area throughout the 19th century, Sicily and its surrounding small islands have some highly active volcanoes. Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and still casts black ash over the island with its ever-present eruptions and it currently stands 3,329 metres high, though this varies with summit eruptions, the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under the mountain by Zeus, Mount Etna is widely regarded as a cultural symbol and icon of Sicily. The Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the northeast of mainland Sicily form a volcanic complex, the three volcanoes of Vulcano, Vulcanello and Lipari are also currently active, although the latter is usually dormant
3.
Palermo
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Palermo is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence, Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz, Palermo then became a possession of Carthage, before becoming part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. The Greeks named the city Panormus meaning complete port, from 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarme, the root for Palermos present-day name, eventually Sicily would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860. The population of Palermo urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, in the central area, the city has a population of around 676,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Palermitani or, poetically, panormiti, the languages spoken by its inhabitants are the Italian language, Sicilian language and the Palermitano dialect. Palermo is Sicilys cultural, economic and touristic capital and it is a city rich in history, culture, art, music and food. Palermo is the main Sicilian industrial and commercial center, the industrial sectors include tourism, services, commerce. Palermo currently has an airport, and a significant underground economy. In fact, for cultural, artistic and economic reasons, Palermo was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and is now among the top tourist destinations in both Italy and Europe. It is the seat of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Arab-Norman Palermo. The city is going through careful redevelopment, preparing to become one of the major cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area. Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitano culture, the Patron Saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia whose Feast Day is celebrated on 15 July. The area attracts significant numbers of each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish markets at the heart of Palermo, known as Vucciria, Ballarò. Palermo lies in a basin, formed by the Papireto, Kemonia, the basin was named the Conca dOro by the Arabs in the 9th century. The city is surrounded by a range which is named after the city itself. These mountains face the Tyrrhenian Sea, Palermo is home to a natural port and offers excellent views to the sea, especially from Monte Pellegrino
4.
Catania
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Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea. It is the capital of the Metropolitan City of Catania, one of the ten biggest cities in Italy, the population of the city proper is 315,601 while the population of the conurbation is estimated to be 767,003. The metropolitan city has 1,115,310 inhabitants, Catania has had a long and eventful history, having been founded in the 8th century BC. In 1434, the first university in Sicily was founded in the city, in the 14th century and into the Renaissance period, Catania was one of Italys most important cultural, artistic and political centres. The city has a culture and history, hosting many museums, restaurants, churches, parks. Catania is well known for its street food, Catania is located on the east coast of the island of Sicily, at the foot of Mount Etna. As observed by Strabo, the location of Catania at the foot of Mount Etna has been both a curse and a blessing, two subterranean rivers run under the city, the Amenano, which surfaces at one single point south of Piazza Duomo, and the Longane. The ancient indigenous population of the Sicels named their villages after geographical attributes of their location, the Sicilian word, katane, means grater, flaying knife, skinning place or a crude tool apt to pare. Other translations of the name are harsh lands, uneven ground, sharp stones, the latter etymologies are easily justifiable since, for many centuries following an eruption, the city has always been rebuilt within its black-lava landscape. Around 729 BC, the ancient village of Katane became the Chalcidian colony of Katánē where the population was rapidly Hellenized. The Naxian founders, coming from the adjacent coast, later used the name for their new settlement along the River Amenano, around 263 BC, the city was variously known as Catĭna and Catăna. The former has been used for its supposed assonance with catina. Catinus has two meanings, a gulf, a basin or a bay and a bowl, a vessel or a trough, around 900, when Catania was part of the emirate of Sicily, it was known in Arabic as Balad al-fīl and Madinat al-fīl. The former means The Village of the Elephant, while the latter means The City of the Elephant, the Elephant is the lava sculpture over the fountain in Piazza Duomo. Another Arab toponym was Qaṭāniyyah, allegedly from the Arabic word for the leguminous plants, pulses like lentils, beans, peas, broad beans, and lupins were chiefly cultivated in the plains around the city well before the arrival of Aghlabids. Afterwards, many Arabic agronomists developed these crops and the orchards in the area around the city. The toponym Wadi Musa, or Valley of Moses, was rarely used, Catania was founded as a Greek colony named Κατάνη, of Chalcidic origin, under the guidance of a leader named Euarchos. The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but it appears from Thucydides that it came into existence slightly later than Leontini, the only event of its early history that is known about is the legislation of Charondas, The exact date of which is uncertain
5.
Mount Etna
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Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate and it is the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently 3,329 m high, though this varies with summit eruptions. It is the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps, Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide in Tenerife surpasses it in the whole of the European–North-African region, Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the slopes of the mountain. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations, in June 2013, it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to Adrian Room’s book Place-names of the World, the name Etna originated from the Phoenician word attuna meaning furnace or chimney and he dismisses the hypothesis that Etna is from the Greek αἴθω, meaning I burn, through an iotacist pronunciation. In Classical Greek, it is called Αἴτνη, a name also to Catania and the city originally known as Inessa. In Arabic, it was called جبل النار Jabal al-Nār and it is also known as Mungibeddu in Sicilian and Mongibello or Montebello in Italian. The term is not in use today, although some older people still call it this. According to another hypothesis the term Mongibello comes from the Latin Mulciber, the people of the Etna sometimes use the jargon term a muntagna, simply the mountain par excellence. Nowadays, the term Mongibello indicates the top area of the two central craters encompassing also the craters in the southeast and the northeast of the volcanic cone. Volcanic activity first took place at Etna about 500,000 years ago, about 300,000 years ago, volcanism began occurring to the southwest of the summit then, before activity moved towards the present centre 170,000 years ago. Eruptions at this time built up the first major volcanic edifice, the growth of the mountain was occasionally interrupted by major eruptions, leading to the collapse of the summit to form calderas. From about 35,000 to 15,000 years ago, Etna experienced some highly explosive eruptions, generating pyroclastic flows. Ash from these eruptions has been found as far away as south of Romes border,800 km to the north, the landslide left a large depression in the side of the volcano, known as Valle del Bove. Research published in 2006 suggested this occurred around 8000 years ago, and caused a huge tsunami and it may have been the reason the settlement of Atlit Yam, now below sea level, was suddenly abandoned around that time
6.
Acireale
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Acireale is a coastal city and comune in the north-east of the province of Catania, Sicily, Italy, at the foot of Mount Etna, on the coast facing the Ionian Sea. Acireale is also noted for its art and paintings, the oldest academy in Sicily, according to tradition, the citys origins trace back to Xiphonia, a mysterious Greek city now completely disappeared. In Roman times, there existed another Greek town, Akis, in Ovids Metamorphoses, there is a great love between Ā́cis, the spirit of the Ā́cis River, and Galatea the sea-nymph. According to mythology, the tears of Galatea after the death of Ā́cis gave birth to the Ā́cis River, Fiume di Jaci, flowing past Acireale. In the Middle Ages, the town expanded around the castle, known as Jachium under the Byzantines, as Al-Yāj under the Arabs, in 1169, a huge earthquake scattered the population of the mainland, divided between the numerous boroughs of Aci. Another Aquilia was founded in the late 14th century further north, the only remains of the medieval Aquilia Nova is the Gothic-Lombard-styled portal of the cathedral. In the 16th century, Emperor Charles V freed the city from feudal ties, in the late 16th century, the town had between 6,000 and 7,000 inhabitants. The most ancient document mentioning the Carnival of Acireale dates to 1594, the town expanded its role as a trade center and received numerous new edifices. Acireale was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1693, which halted its economic growth. During the Expedition of the Thousand, which freed Sicily from the Kingdom of Naples, in 1941, it was bombed by the Allies, resulting in many civilian casualties. Acireale offers many activities, which includes art, festivals and concerts, nature, open-air markets, theater. The church of San Biagio in Acireale contains some of the relics of the Venerable Gabriele Allegra, villa Belvedere and Parco delle Terme, two large public parks and La Timpa, a beautiful natural reserve overlooking the Ionian Sea, offer great nature sights. Piazza Duomo, with its St. Peters Basilica, is in the square of the city. There are many beautiful historic Baroque buildings in town, such as Palazzo Pennisi and Palazzo Modò, which date from the 17th century, the commercial city center is primarily located in the streets including and adjacent to Corso Umberto and Corso Italia, which are the citys principal thoroughfares. The Fortezza del Tocco, a 16th-century fort, has converted to a nature reserve. Acireale is famous throughout Sicily for its spectacular floats, costumes, and parades during the carnival season, Acireale is twinned with, Mar del Plata, Argentina Viareggio, Italy Site about Carnival of Acireale - The Best Carnival in Sicily
7.
Adrano
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Adrano, ancient Adranon, is a town and comune in the province of Catania on the east coast of Sicily. It is situated around 41 kilometres northwest of Catania, which is also the capital of the province to which Adrano belongs and it lies near the foot of Mount Etna, at the confluence of the Simeto and Salso rivers. It is the center for a region where olives and citrus fruit are grown. Neighbouring towns include, Biancavilla, Bronte, Paternò, Randazzo, Santa Maria di Licodia, the settlement was founded by Dionysius the Elder around 400 BC, intending to strengthen Syracusan power in the region. He named the town Adranon in honour of Adranus, a deity of Phoenician origin, in 344 BC the troops of Timoleon fought the forces of the Syracusan commander Iketas of Leontini near Adrano. During the following years, Adrano was frequently harried by Campanian mercenaries, the Romans conquered the growing township in 263 BC and declared it a civitas stipendiaria, obliging it to pay a costly tribute to Rome. The consul Valerius ravaged the town, enslaved the inhabitants and sold them as workers, in 137 BC, Eunus led an unsuccessful slave revolt against the Roman suppressors, and from then on, Adrano was nothing more than part of Centuripe. The Romans referred to the city as Adranum or Hadranum, the township was pillaged several times by Germanic tribes during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Only through the reign of Theodoric the Great, the conditions improved due to the administration by Cassiodorus, in the mid-6th century it was conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire. Around 950, the Arab Musa occupied the city of Centuripe and its vicinity, several of their buildings and structures, like the Ponte dei Saraceni can still be visited around the region. The Arabs reigned the region until in 1075 the Normans, led by Hugo of Yersey, Adrano became part of the Diocese of Catania, administered by the monk Ansgerius. The citizens of the prospering township continued the agricultural and economic work the Arabs had initiated. Therefore, the Norman era was enormously influenced by winegrowing, leather work, the arrival of the Hohenstaufen around the end of the 12th century brought enduring difficulties and disputes over Sicily and its inhabitants. The remaining Arabs were vehemently pursued by the administration, which forced them to gather inside the fortresses of Troina, Entella and Centuripe, the insurrection was ended violently, and the survivors were massacred or kidnapped. Pope Clement IV made Charles of Anjou king of Sicily in 1265, during that time, Adrano was rather a small settlement of hunters, and the number of inhabitants had decreased from 1,000 to 300. In 1282, the Sicilian Vespers ended the French reign in Sicily, the following years were characterized by constant conflicts between the residing farmers and the Bourgeoisie of the region. Adrano fell to the property of the Catalonian landholder Garzia de Linguida, the estates and soils of the region were subject to immense disputes between several landowners and noblemen in the following time until the 15th century. From the 15th century on, Sicily was reigned by the socalled vice kings, between 1412 and 1515, Adrano was under administration by the Moncada family
8.
Caltagirone
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Caltagirone is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Catania, on the island of Sicily, southern Italy, about 70 kilometres southwest of Catania. It is bounded by the comuni of Acate, Gela, Grammichele, Licodia Eubea, Mazzarino, Mazzarrone, Mineo, Mirabella Imbaccari, Niscemi, Piazza Armerina, the city is a production center of pottery, particularly maiolica and terra-cotta wares. Nowadays the production is more and more oriented to artistic production of ceramics, other activities are mainly related to agriculture. The citys name derives from the Arabic qalat-al-jarar - a name that attests to the antiquity of the works which are still thriving. It has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as shown by the presence of two necropolises dating from the second millennium BCE and by other archaeological finds. It was later inhabited by the Sicels pre-Roman population, the Arabs built a castle here that in 1030 was attacked by Ligurian troops under the Byzantine general George Maniakes, who have left traces of Ligurian language in the current dialect. The city flourished under the Norman and Hohenstaufen domination, becoming a center for production of ceramics. The city was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1693, many public and private buildings have then been reconstructed in earthquake Baroque style. Primarily for this reason the city has been included, together with the surrounding territory, the municipality borders with Acate, Gela, Grammichele, Licodia Eubea, Mazzarino, Mazzarrone, Mineo, Mirabella Imbaccari, Niscemi, Piazza Armerina and San Michele di Ganzaria. A collection of ancient and modern pottery and terra-cotta, dating back to the Magna Grecia period, is available in the local Museum of Pottery, created in 1965. The main landmark of the city is the 142-step monumental Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte, the peculiarity is that each step is decorated with different hand-decorated ceramics, using styles and figures derived from the millennial tradition of pottery making. Religious buildings include, The Cathedral of St. Julian, of Norman origin, the Baroque church of San Francesco di Paola. The sacristy is in Gothic style, dating from before the 1693 earthquake, San Francesco dAssisi, edified in 1236 and rebuilt in Baroque style after 1693. The façade has two orders with marine symbols and a statue of the Immaculate, the façade has eight statues portraying saints and the Madonna with Child. The interior, one a single nave, houses a Pietà by Filippo Paladino, the Renaissance Church of the New Capuchins, in white stone, with a noteworthy treasure and a picture gallery. Also noteworthy is the Palazzo Senatorio, the former Town Hall, don Luigi Sturzo, founder of the Italian Peoples Party. Mario Scelba, Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955, silvio Milazzo, President of the Regional Government of Sicily from 1958-1960. Vincent Drucci Chicago North Side Gang boss, born here in 1898, giuseppe Mascara football player, born here in 1979
9.
Fiumefreddo di Sicilia
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Fiumefreddo di Sicilia is a comune on the coast of the Ionian Sea on the island of Sicily. It shares its borders with the municipalities of Calatabiano to the north, Mascali to the south, the commune gets its name from the Fiumefreddo River which runs alongside the territory of the comune. The word fiumefreddo means literally cold river, a reference to the fact that the river is fed by snow melts from Mount Etna, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia is near the major Etna tourist centres. The SS120 to Mt Etna and Randazzo start from there, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia is situated in the Province of Catania and it was so named to distinguish it from Fiumefreddo Bruzio, in the Province of Cosenza. Currently the town has almost 10,000 inhabitants, Fiumefreddo stands along the SS114 and A18, both roads run from Catania to Messina. Fiumefreddo di Sicilia is in the heart of an important road and railway network, near Taormina and Acireale and not far from Catania and its strategical position, has been enhanced by the opening of the motorway junction. This has reemphasised Fiumefreddos role in the area, the most important part of Fiumefreddo stands along the SS114, where, in the 1700s, the old shops of the Prince of Palagonia stood. Together with other towns, such as Giarre, Riposto, Piedimonte Etneo, Linguaglossa, Castiglione di Sicilia, Mascali and Calatabiano, Fiumefreddo forms the electorate of Giarre. Fiumefreddo is bounded by the Ionian Sea to the East, by Calatabiano to the North, by Piedimonte Etneo to the West and by Mascali to the South. Its municipal territory is flat, especially along the coast, where there is the Marina di Cottone beach. Fiumefreddo is so named after the river runs through it, whose natural habitat, with its exceptionally cold water, has allowed the development of typical river flora. In order to protect this natural environment, the Sicilian Region. 205185, has instituted a protected area, The Nature Reserve of The River Fiumefreddo and this river runs across a plain. Here Cluverio said Greeks founded Nasso, although some historians had placed Naxos on Cape Schisò, ancient writers described the new town as set up between two rivers, the Onobola on the North and the Akesine on the South. By identifying the first river with the Alcantara, the second is most likely Fiumefreddo and this theory has been borne out by Bochard, who found an etymological correspondence of the name Akesine to that of Fiumefreddo. The name of the ancient river may have been born indeed as a corruption of the word Akesine that probably derived from a Syriac word, hassim, which means cold river. This theory was so repeated that someone managed to see even the ancient Nasso, holm succeeded in discrediting this theory. He proved that Onobola is the torrent Sìrina, it flows down to the sea near Giardini railway station and he also established that the Akesine is Alcantara
10.
Enclave and exclave
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An enclave is a territory, or a part of a territory, that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state. Territorial waters have the same attributes as land, and enclaves may therefore exist within territorial waters. An exclave is a portion of a state or territory geographically separated from the part by surrounding alien territory. Enclave is sometimes used improperly to denote a territory that is partly surrounded by another state. Vatican City and San Marino, enclaved by Italy, and Lesotho, unlike an enclave, an exclave can be surrounded by several states. The Azeri exclave of Naxçıvan is an example of an exclave. Semi-enclaves and semi-exclaves are areas that, except for possessing an unsurrounded sea border, Enclaves and semi-enclaves can exist as independent states, while exclaves always constitute just a part of a sovereign state. A pene-enclave is a part of the territory of one country that can be approached conveniently — in particular by wheeled traffic — only through the territory of another country, pene-enclaves are also called functional enclaves or practical enclaves. Many pene-exclaves partially border their own territorial waters, a pene-enclave can also exist entirely on land, such as when intervening mountains render a territory inaccessible from other parts of a country except through alien territory. A commonly cited example is the Kleinwalsertal, a part of Vorarlberg, Austria. The word enclave is French and first appeared in the century as a derivative of the verb enclaver. In law, this created a servitude of passage for the benefit of the owner of the surrounded land, the first diplomatic document to contain the word enclave was the Treaty of Madrid, signed in 1526. Later, the term began to be used also to refer to parcels of countries, counties, fiefs, communes, towns, parishes. This French word eventually entered the English and other languages to denote the same concept although local terms have continued to be used, in India, the word pocket is often used as a synonym for enclave. In British administrative history, subnational enclaves were usually called detachments or detached parts, in English ecclesiastic history, subnational enclaves were known as peculiars. The word exclave, modeled on enclave, is a extension of the concept of enclave. Enclaves exist for a variety of historical, political and geographical reasons, in particular, this state of affairs persisted into the 19th century in the Holy Roman Empire, and these domains exhibited many of the characteristics of sovereign states. Prior to 1866 Prussia alone consisted of more than 270 discontiguous pieces of territory, thus, over time enclaves have tended to be eliminated. This exchange thus effectively de-enclaved another two dozen second-order enclaves and one third-order enclave, eliminating 197 of the Indo-Bangladesh enclaves in all, the residents in these enclaves had complained of being effectively stateless
11.
Quadripoint
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A quadripoint is a point on the Earth that touches the border of four distinct territories. The term has never been in common use—it may not have used before 1964 when it was possibly invented by the Office of the Geographer of the United States Department of State. An early instance of four political divisions meeting at a point is in England, it combined until 1931 the English shires/counties of Gloucester, Oxford, Warwick and Worcester. During that period, the part of West Florida between the Pearl and Perdido rivers was subdivided and allocated partly to the State of Mississippi and partly to the Territory of Alabama. Between 1839 and 1920 there was a quadripoint at the convergence of Belgium, Prussia/Germany, the Netherlands, Moresnet was never truly a country but rather only a neutral territory or condominium of the Netherlands and Prussia, and of Belgium and Germany. Subsequent political changes have restored its quadripartition along municipal lines since 1976, in August 2007 the governments of Zambia and Botswana announced a deal to construct a bridge at the site to replace a ferry. There have been a few international incidents revolving round this particular quadripoint, in 1970, South Africa informed Botswana that there was no common border between Botswana and Zambia, claiming that a quadripoint existed. As a result, South Africa claimed, the Kazungula Ferry, there was actually a confrontation and shots were fired at the ferry, some years later, the Rhodesian Army attacked and sank the ferry, maintaining that it was serving military purposes. Ian Brownlie, who studied the case, wrote in 1979 that the possibility of a quadripoint could not be ruled out at that time. This particular geographical multipoint, though notional since 1908, if not 1891, quadripoints can exist at the meeting of political subdivisions of any type or level. The borders of U. S. counties and towns are defined by survey townships. But of all the quadripoints that exist, the most noted are a few dozen that are situated on international borders, among the international quadripoints, a few general types can be distinguished. In the absence of four-country points, three-country quadripoints are perhaps most significant and these combine two divisions of one country with two other countries. But there also exist merely binational quadripoints—of several varieties, also below, by country, are some quadripoints composed only of primary subdivisions. The Argentine provinces of La Pampa, Río Negro, Mendoza, Río Negro has disputed this since a 1966 resurvey cast the exact boundary convergence into some doubt. Almost all of the India–Bangladesh enclaves were extinguished by the Land Boundary Agreement between the two states, effective after 31 July 2015, which exchanged all first-order exclaves, the following quadripoint was thus also extinguished. The international boundary touched itself at one locations shared by India, additional political subdivision did not appear to result in either case. Its international stature had been intermittent since Mughal times and was a result of the Radcliffe Award of 1947, the international boundary touches itself, without imparting political subdivision, within the commingled municipalities of Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog
12.
Aci Castello
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Aci Castello is a comune in the Province of Catania in Sicily, Italy. The city is located 9 kilometres north of Catania on the Mediterranean coast, the primary economic sectors are agriculture and industry. The city is neighbored by Aci Catena, Acireale, Catania, San Gregorio di Catania, the town of Aci Castello developed around the castle, which was built in 1076 by the Normans upon the foundations of a 7th-century Byzantine fortification. In 1169, Aci Castello started to expand after an eruption of Mount Etna made the towns in its vicinity uninhabitable, the castle later became the property of the bishops of Catania. When relations between the two men soured and di Lauria transferred his loyalties to the Angevins, the castle was besieged and captured by King Frederick, in 1320, the castle and Aci were taken from Rogers descendant, Margaret of Lauria and given to Blasco II de Alagona. Whilst the latter was away defending Palermo from the attacking Angevins, the Norman Castle, which was built from 1076 to 1081. It now serves as a museum The borough Aci Trezza with a beach
