A dozen ships made it to Sicily, in October 1347. The plague traveled with them. Sicilians were appalled to find dead men still at their oars. Other sailors, dead or barely alive, were in their bunks, riddled with foul-smelling sores. The horrified Sicilians drove the ships back to sea, but it was too late. Rats and fleas, the carriers of Yersina pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague, quickly infested the port of Messina. By January, Italy was engulfed. Incoming ships were required to sit at anchor for quaranta giorni—forty days, which is where the term “quarantine” comes from.
