Italy
Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.
In numbers
25,662km²
Area
940km
Coastline
measured on a simplified outline
3,357m
Highest point
Mount Etna
5,050,000
People
26°C
Warmest sea
August
6km
To the mainland
When to go to Sicily
Best for the beach in September.
The sea is warmest in August (26 °C) and coolest in February (15 °C). Comfortable swimming (21 °C or more): from June to October.
Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.
Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea
Sicily is an island in Italy. It covers 25,662 km², with 940 km of coastline. Its highest point, Mount Etna, rises to 3,357 m. About 5,050,000 people live on it. The nearest mainland is 6 km away.
Getting there
- Catania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)main airport (4 on the island with scheduled flights)Car hire at CTA airport (Catania)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- FerriesPorto Empedocle - Linosa - Lampedusa, Messina - Villa San Giovanni, Trapani - Favignana, Trapani - Pantelleria
- 6 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
- Septemberbest months to go (from 30 years of averages)
Plan the trip
Ferries, stays and things to do
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
On the island
What you find on Sicily.
- 553beachesChiappe, Tonnara del Secco, Caletta di Paternella and 550 more
- 714viewpointsMonte Fontane, Belverde Necropoli della Cavetta, Castello Luna and 711 more
- 27lighthousesFaro di Brucoli, Faro di Capo Santa Croce, Faro Carrozzieri and 24 more
- 42ferry terminalsInvasatura IV, Invasatura III, Invasatura II and 39 more
- 82marinasSan Nicola L'arena Marina, Porticciolo turistico, La Caletta and 79 more
- 2,562named peaksMonte Frumento delle Concazze, Monte Palestra, Pizzo Carbonara and 2,559 more
- 49volcanoesEtna, North East Crater, South East Crater and 46 more
- 75waterfallsAlcantara falls, Gurne dell'Alcantara, Gole dell'Alcantara and 72 more
- 228castles and fortsMistretta Castle, Ruderi del Castello Arabo - Normanno, Borgo Bagherino and 225 more
- 1,722ruins and archaeological sitesSaint John’s Catacombs, Ipogeo di Sant'Euplio, Porta di mendolito and 1,719 more
- 12dive centresOceanoMare diving center, Taormina Diving Center, Mondo sub and 9 more
- 793waymarked walking routesForza d'Agrò-Piatrabianca, Sentiero natura Le Gurne dell'Alcantara, Sentiero Naturalistico and 790 more
- 189campsitesIl Cicero, Camping Roccella Mare, Porto di Terra and 186 more
- 2,790hotels, guesthouses and apartments
- 7,758restaurants, cafés and bars
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Sicily in our other atlases
Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Sicily, each with its own numbers.
135beaches and covesCoastya
40lakesLakeyas
3waterfallsCascadyas
Largest lake
7.3km²
Lago di Lentini
according to Lakeyas
Deepest lake
98m
Lago di Ancipa
according to Lakeyas
Warmest lake
32.1°C
Pantano Baronello
surface water, warmest month · according to Lakeyas
Beach with the warmest sea
27.2°C
sea in the warmest month · according to Coastya
135 beaches
on Coastya, the beach atlas
- San Leone25.5°C
- Spiaggia Porto Empedocle25.0°C
- Spiaggia della Plaia26.2°C
- Spiaggia finanza siracusa26.4°C
- Lido Del Carabiniere26.2°C
- Spiaggia Fondachelo26.2°C
- Spiaggia San Marco26.2°C
- Spiaggia di Naxos26.2°C
127 more on CoastyaOpen Coastya ↗
40 lakes
on Lakeyas, the lake atlas
- Lago di Lentini7.3km²
- Lago Pozzillo52 m deep5.6km²
- Lago di Ogliastro42 m deep3.9km²
- Lago di Piana degli Albanesi2.0km²
- Lago Arancio30 m deep1.4km²
- Lago di Santa Rosalia39 m deep0.87km²
- Pergusa Lake12 m deep0.81km²
- Lago di Ancipa98 m deep0.60km²
32 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
3 waterfalls
on Cascadyas, the waterfall atlas
- Cascata del Catafurco
- Oxena falls
- Cascata delle Due Rocche
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
The shape of the land.
On average the island stands 423 m above the sea. 29 % of it is below 200 m.
- 10 %0–50 m
- 19 %50–200 m
- 38 %200–500 m
- 28 %500–1,000 m
- 6 %1,000–2,000 m
- <1 %> 2,000 m
Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).
Size, for real
Next to islands you may know.
200 km
All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).
Towns on the island
- Palermo648,260 people
- Catania311,584 people
- Messina219,948 people
- Siracusa121,605 people
- Marsala77,915 people
- Gela75,001 people
- Ragusa74,251 people
- Trapani67,531 people
- Caltanissetta62,797 people
- Modica54,456 people
- Bagheria53,149 people
- Mazara del Vallo51,534 people
Month by month
The weather on the island.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon high (°C) | 12 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 24 | 31 | 36 | 35 | 28 | 23 | 17 | 13 |
| Night low (°C) | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 4 |
| Sea (°C) | 15 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 26 | 25 | 22 | 20 | 17 |
| Rain (mm) | 79 | 66 | 63 | 43 | 19 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 53 | 76 | 85 | 83 |
| Wet days | 11 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 |
| Sun h/day | 4.5 | 5.2 | 6.5 | 7.9 | 9.9 | 11.5 | 12.4 | 11.0 | 8.1 | 6.4 | 5.0 | 4.3 |
| Wind (km/h) | 14 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 14 |
Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.
Recent years
Warmer and cooler years at sea.
Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +0.3 | +0.4 | +0.8 | −0.2 | +1.0 | +1.2 | +1.8 | ±0.0 | +0.6 | +0.8 |
| 2021 | +0.3 | +0.5 | +0.5 | −0.2 | +0.2 | +0.8 | +0.6 | +1.1 | +1.3 | +0.6 | +0.9 | −0.2 |
| 2022 | +0.1 | +0.3 | −0.3 | −0.6 | +0.4 | +1.5 | +2.0 | +1.4 | +1.7 | +1.0 | +1.4 | +1.2 |
| 2023 | +1.1 | +0.5 | +0.6 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | +0.3 | +1.9 | ±0.0 | +0.6 | +1.9 | +1.4 | +0.9 |
| 2024 | +0.8 | +0.9 | +0.8 | +0.8 | +0.5 | +1.1 | +1.3 | +2.2 | +1.1 | +0.6 | +2.1 | +1.3 |
| 2025 | +1.2 | +1.1 | +1.1 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +2.0 | +1.8 | +0.4 | +1.8 | +0.8 | +1.0 | +0.9 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Photos
Seen by visitors.
Nearby
More islands nearby.
Malta
About these numbers
| Names, area, population | Wikidata (Q4951156) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Outline | Natural Earth · public domain |
| Sea temperature | NOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020 |
| Climate | NASA POWER · 1991–2020 |
| Relief, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Towns | GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfalls | Coastya, Lakeyas, Cascadyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST; HydroLAKES (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0, LakeTEMP (Korver et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0 |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.You are here
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit