Monreale, Cathedral.  Begun by King William II ca. 1174.  Detail from Twelfth-century bronze door by Bonanno of Pisa 1186.

Your mind has rejected the sweetness of your native English air, and all the foodstuffs of our land.  .  .  Every sort of food and drink with us is safe and pleasant.  Your people make the mistake of having a meagre diet, and they live so much on celery and fennel, which makes up almost all of your food. However, from these things a humor is born, which always causes a most painful death, and putrefies matter in this death. I also add to what is read in books the help of experience, since, as it is written that all peoples who live on islands are generally unfaithful, the inhabitants of Sicily are treacherous friends and secret and most perfidious traitors.  Latin text

Peter of Blois, Letter to the Richard, bishop of Syracuse [Letter no. 46, PL 207.133-137 (ca. 1173)] Translated by Graham A. Loud