“Vikings,” Vito said. It was an unseasonably mild day in August and, for a brief moment, I considered suggesting that we sit out at the sidewalk tables. But thought better of it.
“What about them?” I asked, sliding into a chair next to him.
“They’re Norsemen, correttu? But a subset of all the Normans who conquered Europe and the British Isles.”
correttuI wasn’t going to argue. I knew enough about history to know that the Vikings were memorialized as marauders who sacked towns and pillaged regions before moving on, but I couldn’t swear to it.
“There are some reports of Viking ships landing in Sicily very early, perhaps while the Muslims still ruled the island. It’s more likely that they didn’t come until about 1038…”
“…when the Muslims were beginning to fade in importance in Sicily,” I
