Enna and the interior
… for the last five hours all they had set eyes on were bare hillsides flaming yellow under the sun … They had passed through crazed-looking villages washed in palest blue; crossed dry beds of torrents over fantastic bridges; skirted sheer precipices which no sage and broom could temper. Never a tree, never a drop of water; just sun and dust.
It is in Sicily’s vast and mountainous interior – thoroughly depleted by mass emigration – that you can truly begin to get off the tourist trail. Outside just three or four decent-sized towns, bunched together almost in the centre of the island, much of the land is burnt dry during the long summer months. The extensive cornfields have been a feature of the Sicilian landscape since Greek times, but the rolling hills are mostly silent and empty, punctuated only by occasional moribund towns and villages wrapped around easily defensible heights. Even crossing through the centre via the Catania–Palermo motorway gives a powerful flavour of the rural Sicily in Lampedusa’s books. However, travelling slowly through this land has its rewards, not least the fascinating glimpses of a way of life that has all but disappeared in the rest of the island. This is true not just of the countryside, but of the cities too – perhaps manifested most intensely during religious festivals, such as Easter. Indeed, one of the most evocative times to visit the area is Holy Week, which sees costumed processions in Caltagirone, Troina, Caltanissetta and, most striking of all, Enna.
Symbol of the entire interior is the blustery mountain settlement of Enna, easy to reach from both Catania and Palermo. It’s a historic place, with a mighty castle and some even mightier views, and deserves a night’s stay. Routes north (towards the Tyrrhenian coast and Palermo) or east (Etna and Catania) head through minor mountain towns and villages on the fringes of the Nébrodi and Madonie mountains, and make good driving circuits provided you don’t mind potholed roads and a middle-of-nowhere feel. The largest town in the region is actually Caltanissetta, gateway to the south coast and the deep west, though it’s also the most disappointing and devoid of much charm. The treasures of the interior are all in the southeast, especially the single biggest draw: the lavish Roman mosaics at the Villa Romana del Casale. This lies just outside the enjoyable Baroque town of Piazza Armerina, which could also be your base for seeing the extensive and unsung Greek ruins of Morgantina and the fabulous collection of the Archeological Museum in Aidone. Further south, ceramic-studded Caltagirone makes a handy departure point for the Baroque towns of the southeast.
Highlights
1 Enna Spend the night high up in the hill-town of Enna and watch the sun set from its spectacular terraces or visit on Good Friday to see thousands take part in traditional processions.
2 Piazza Armerina The old Baroque town of Piazza Armerina is an undiscovered gem.
3 Villa Romana del Casale The extraordinary mosaics in this ancient Roman villa, created by artists from North Africa, are unmatched anywhere in Italy.
4 Museo Archeologico, Aidone See the incredible ancient Greek sculptures and silverware recently returned to Sicily after a protracted legal battle.
5 Morgantina A little-known Greek archeological site in gorgeous rural surroundings.
6 La Scala, Caltagirone In a town famed for its ceramics, these 142 steps are adorned with beautiful patterned tiles.
GETTING AROUND: ENNA AND THE INTERIOR
By car The interior’s main roads at least are pretty good and distances not too large, and with a car you could pick any of the towns and use it as a base for seeing the rest of the region.
By bus Enna, Caltanissetta and Piazza Armerina are the only towns with frequent bus connections to the rest of Sicily, so if you’re relying on public transport, you’re pretty much limited to these places plus a side-trip from Piazza Armerina to Aidone and Morgantina. It’s more difficult to travel north and west into the mountains by bus, though there are services out of Enna along the two major routes, the SS120 and SS121.
Enna
From a bulging V-shaped ridge almost 1000m up, ENNA lords it over the surrounding hills of central Sicily. One of the most ancient towns on the island, Enna has only ever had one function: Livy described it as “inexpugnabilis”, and, for obvious strategic reasons, the town was a magnet for successive hostile armies, who in turn besieged and fortified it. The Arabs, for example, spent twenty years trying to gain entrance to Enna before eventually, in 859, resorting to crawling in through the sewers. The approach to this doughty mountain stronghold is still formidable, the road climbing slowly out of the valley and looping across the solid crag to the summit and the town.
Enna remains a medieval hill-town at heart, with a tightly packed centre of narrow streets, small squares and hemmed-in churches, where occasional gaps through the buildings reveal swirling drops down into the valleys below. Most of Enna’s churches – even the ones in use – have cracked facades and weeds growing out of improbable places, but there are some that catch the eye, like fourteenth-century San Giovanni (behind the much larger San Giuseppe, on Piazza Coppola) which has a Catalan-Gothic facade and a tower crowned by a little cupola. When all is said and done, apart from the castle, the all-encompassing views, and the usual desultory pleasures of provincial town life (like the little street market on Piazza Coppola), there’s little to keep you here more than a night. However, that night is very definitely worth it – with some stupendous vantage points from which to watch the sun set, summer evenings here must count among the most enjoyable in Sicily. Come in winter and you should expect snow, the wind blowing hard through the streets, and the white slopes beyond blending with the anaemic stone buildings.
Castello di Lombardia
Via Nino Savarese • Daily: April–Oct 8am–8pm; Nov–March 9am–5pm • Free
Despite numerous wars and attacks over the years, most of Enna’s medieval remains are in good condition. Dominating the easternmost spur of town is the thirteenth-century Castello di Lombardia, built by Frederick II who, according to some sources, spent his summers here. There’s a huge area inside enclosed by the walls, split into various courtyards, while six surviving towers (out of an original twenty) provide lookouts. Climb the tallest, Torre Pisana, for some great views of Enna, the rugged countryside in all directions, and across to Mount Etna.
Rocca di Cerere
Via Nino Savarese • Daily: April–Oct 8am–8pm; Nov–March 9am–5pm • Free
Up above Enna’s castle is the Rocca di Cerere, an exposed outcrop where some scattered foundations are presumed to be the remnants of a temple erected by Gelon in 480 BC. Enna was the centre of the Greek cult of Demeter, the fertility goddess (her Roman counterpart was Ceres, hence the rock’s name), and the most famous of the myths associated with the goddess – the carrying off of her daughter, Persephone, to the underworld – is supposed to have taken place just a few kilometres away, at Lago di Pergusa.
LAGO DI PERGUSA
The Lago di Pergusa was the site of Hades’ abduction of Persephone to the underworld. The story has it that Persephone, surrounded by nymphs, was gathering flowers on the lush banks of the lake when Hades emerged from a chasm beneath the water and spirited her away. Demeter searched in vain for her daughter, and her grief at the loss of Persephone prevented the corn from growing. To settle the matter, Zeus ruled that Persephone should spend half the year as queen of the underworld, and live for the other six months in Sicily with her mother as one of the island’s goddesses. In her gratitude, Demeter, as goddess of grain and agriculture, made the corn grow again – a powerful symbol in a traditionally fertile land. These days, sadly, the Pergusa road is choc-a-bloc with apartments, hotels and holiday developments, while the lake is encircled by a motor-racing track. It’s hard now, despite the pleasant wooded banks beyond the water, to imagine a less romantic spot. Mary Taylor Simeti’s journal, On Persephone’s Island, labels the Lago di Pergusa “a brilliant example of the Sicilians’ best efforts to ruin their landscape”.
There’s really no point coming to the lake for any glimpse of the
truth behind the legend, though it does make a possible base near Enna,
especially if you fancy a retreat with Moleskine and pencil to 
La Casa del Poeta at Contrada da Parasporino,
1km from Lago di Pergusa (
329 627 4918 or 328 657
2731, 
lacasadelpoeta.it; €100), a nineteenth-century villa, where
you’re invited to immerse yourself in literature from their library or
write in their “writing room”. Those suffering from writer’s block can
seek inspiration as they lounge by the pool.
The Duomo
Piazza Duomo • Daily 9.30am–1pm & 3.30–8pm
Enna’s Duomo fronts a shady little square, which has been rebuilt several times since its foundation in 1307. It’s not much to look at from the outside, but the sixteenth-century interior is a different story, with every surface covered in ornamentation. Look closely at the bottom of the huge supporting dark-grey columns, the bases of which are carved with snarling heads with human hands and snake bodies. Treasures from the cathedral are kept in the adjacent Museo Alessi, which was closed for “works” at the time of writing.
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele
The western extremity of Via Roma is marked by the sloping, rectangular Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, focal point of the evening passeggiata. Off here, a long cliff-edge promenade looks out to the little rust-coloured town of Calascibetta over the valley. The plain, high wall of the church of San Francesco, which flanks the piazza, has a massive sixteenth-century tower, previously part of the old town’s system of watchtowers that linked the castle with all Enna’s churches.
Torre di Federico II
Via Torre di Federico • Mon–Sat 8am–6pm, Sun 9am–1pm • Free
An octagonal watchtower, 24m high, the Torre di Federico II is linked by a (now hidden) underground passage to the castle. Built in the thirteenth century by Frederick II, it now stands in isolation amid the Giardino Pubblico in the largely modern south of the town. You can climb to the top of the tower for more great views.
Calascibetta
6km from Enna • Buses every two hours from the terminal but only two on Sunday
The small town you can see from Enna’s terraces, hugging a lower hill to the north across the valley, is Calascibetta, and it hints at what Enna would be like without the tower blocks. Once a Saracen town, it was fortified by Count Roger in his successful attempt to take Enna in 1087, and the tangled streets seem straight from that age. The tightly packed red-stone buildings perch above a sheer drop on the eastern side, rising to the restored Chiesa Madre at the very top.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ENNA
By bus The terminal is on Viale Diaz, just out of the old centre and a
10min walk from the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. All bus companies are
at the bus terminal: SAIS ( 0935 500 902, saisautolinee.it)
covers Calascibetta, Caltanissetta, Catania, Catania airport,
Messina, Palermo and Piazza Armerina; Interbus ( 0935 22
460, interbus.it) covers Agira, Catania, Leonforte and
Nicosia; and ISEA ( 095 464 101, iseaviaggi.it) Cesarò,
Nicosia and Troina.
Destinations Calascibetta (8–12 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 30min); Caltagirone (2 daily Mon–Fri, 1 daily Sun; 1hr 25min); Caltanissetta (4–5 daily Mon–Sat; 55min); Catania (8–10 daily Mon–Sat, 5 daily Sun; 1hr 15min); Gela (3–4 daily; 1hr 15min); Leonforte (8 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 35–45min); Nicosia (3 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 30min); Palermo (3–5 daily; 1hr 35min); Pergusa (4–9 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 20min); Piazza Armerina (4–6 daily; 30min).
By train The train station is 5km north of town: a local bus runs roughly hourly to the town centre and back (less frequently on Sun), or a taxi costs around €15.
Destinations Caltanissetta (7 daily Mon–Sat, 5 daily Sun; 35min); Catania (6 daily; 1hr 20min); Palermo (2 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 2hr 20min).
By car Having whizzed up the road from below town with comparative ease, the traffic in Enna is among the most congested in all Sicily, and you really don’t want to drive around more than you have to. There’s a car park just off Viale Diaz, by the Cappuccini cemetery and near the bus terminal (look for the blue “P” sign), and plenty of free parking up by the castle (follow “castello” signs); from either place it’s a 10min walk to the old town.
GETTING AROUND
By bus Everywhere in Enna itself can be reached very easily on foot, though local buses run out to places like Pergusa, Calascibetta and the train station – you’ll need to buy a ticket (valid for 1hr) in advance from tabacchi.
By taxi Ranks can be found along Viale Diaz, near the bus terminal, and at
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele; alternatively, call 0935 500
905.
INFORMATION
Tourist information You can pick up a good town map and accommodation details at the
Info Point at Via Roma 413 (Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sat 8.30am–1.30pm,
Wed 8.30am–7pm; 0935 528 288), or at the larger
office on Piazza Colaianni (Mon–Fri 8am–2pm, plus Wed 2.45–6.15pm;
0935 500 875), off Via Roma next to the Grande Albergo Sicilia.
Online information There’s information on Enna at ennaturismo.info and
turismoenna.it,
but only in Italian.
ACCOMMODATION
Bianko & Bianko Via Longo 15 331 329 4288 or 327 159 8426, biankoebianko.it. An effortlessly cool and
uncluttered B&B in a nineteenth-century townhouse, with three
spacious, light-filled rooms in stylish white. It’s handy for the
old town, just to the right of the steps of San Cataldo church at
the bottom of Via Vittorio Emanuele. There’s no one on the premises
(you have to call first), and breakfast is taken at the bar around
the corner. €55
Grande Albergo Sicilia Piazza Colaianni 0935 500 850, hotelsiciliaenna.it. This easy-to-find pile
in the centre, close to the Duomo, is the best of Enna’s two central
hotels. It’s a traditional place, with an Art Deco lobby and nicely
refurbished rooms, some with hand-painted Sicilian country furniture
and others with rooftop views. You can also park right outside,
which is a definite bonus. Online bookings and last-minute deals can
bring the price down. €120
Da Pietro Contrada Longobardi, Calascibetta 0935 33 647 or 340 276 5763, bbcalascibetta.it. Surrounded by a garden,
this pleasant B&B has a wide terrace with great views where
breakfast is served. It’s 6km north of Enna and well signposted on
the approach to the village of Calascibetta. No credit cards.
€50
Prosperina Piazza Scelfo 108, corner Via Sant’Agata 333 299 1957, bbenna.it. A tall townhouse B&B right in
the historic centre, with seven polished rooms perched on top of one
another and reached by lift. They sleep from one to four (including
a good family room, with separate bunk beds), and there’s a dining
room and little covered terrace area for breakfast. Among services
on offer are tours of the city centre by vintage Ape. Doubles
€55
EATING AND DRINKING
There’s only a limited choice of restaurants in the old part of Enna, but enough for a night or two. The cafés and bars around Piazza Vittorio Emanuele fill up during the evening, while during the passeggiata dawdling locals hold up the traffic all along Via Roma.
RESTAURANTS
Ariston Via Roma 353 0935 26 038. Longstanding, reliable
place for fresh pasta and good, authentic Sicilian fish dishes,
this is a typically formal provincial place; it’s set inside an
old-fashioned shopping arcade, which does its gloomy terrace
tables no favours. Expect to pay €30 a head for a meal, though
there are pizzas at night, too. Mon–Sat lunch &
dinner.
Centrale Piazza VI Dicembre 9 0935 500 963. Attracts a largely
local crowd, and has a shady terrace off the main street. The
antipasti table is impressive, and
dishes on a wide-ranging menu cost €6–18 for meat and €25 for
fish, or there are four fixed-price menus (priced €15–€23).
Daily lunch & dinner;
closed Sat in winter.
Grotta Azzurra Via Colaianni 1 0935 24 328. Run for over fifty
years by the charming Giuseppe and Maria, this tiny, no-frills
basement trattoria serves the cheapest meals in town: from €3.50
for primi and €5.50 or €6 for secondi. It’s nothing fancy (baked pasta,
simple grills and roasts, omelettes, and fruit for dessert), and
the house wine could fuel a mission to Mars, but it’s a real
taste of the past. It’s at the very bottom of Via Roma, past
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and down an alley on the left (there’s
a sign). No credit cards. Daily lunch & dinner;
closed Sat in winter.
CAFÉS
Al Kenisa Via Roma 481 0935 500 972, alkenisa.blogspot.it. This old church
has been stripped bare and revamped as a cultural centre and
café. There are warm stone walls, art exhibitions and books
inside, and Arab-style lounging outside on the cobbles at low
tables and cushions. Tues–Sat
3pm–1am.
Marro Caffè Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 22 0935 502 836. Marro Caffè’s outdoor deck is the
best perch on the main square. When you get tired of
people-watching, someone has thoughtfully Googled song lyrics
for you to read on the back of every chair. Tues–Sun usually
8am–8pm.
DIRECTORY
Emergencies Ambulance 118; police 113.
Hospital Ospedale Umberto I, Contrada Ferrante in Enna Bassa, on the road
to Pergusa ( 0935 45 111).
Pharmacies Librizzi, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 20 ( 0935 500
908); Farmacia del Centro, Via Roma 315 ( 0935 500
650). Both open Mon–Sat 8.30am–1pm & 4.30–8pm, and a
late-opening rota is posted in all pharmacy windows.
Police Questura at Via San Giuseppe 4 ( 0935 522
111).
Post office Via A. Volta, off Piazza Garibaldi (Mon–Fri 8am–6.30pm, Sat 8am–12.30pm).
Northeast of Enna
There’s a great driving route northeast of Enna, along the minor SS121 which runs all the way to Adrano and the Etna foothills. It’s rolling countryside for the most part, punctuated by a succession of viewpoints and sleepy little towns and villages such as Leonforte and Cesarò, and with an occasional coffee and a stretch of the legs the route can occupy half a day. The road is in a bit of a state, with the surface breaking up here and there, though it’s perfectly drivable with care. Buses come this way too, though with services timetabled to take local kids to school in Enna, you might find yourself spending longer than you’d want in many of the towns – generally you can expect to have to leave Enna after school finishes for the day around 2pm, and then to return the next day at the crack of dawn.
Forty kilometres north of Enna, the small hill-town of Nicosia is the main stop on the trans-mountain SS120, which cuts across some of the remoter stretches of the Sicilian interior. It’s hardly a major destination its own right, though onward routes from Nicosia are all dramatic, especially north over the Madonie mountains to Gangi, Mistretta and the Tyrrhenian coast and east along the SS120 through a bare landscape dominated ever more dramatically by the giant silhouette of Etna. Again, the road isn’t in great condition, with slips and wash-outs common, but it’s no problem if you heed the signs and drive carefully.
Leonforte
Some 20km from Enna along the SS121, LEONFORTE is typical of the small towns hereabouts, with its roots firmly in the seventeenth century and an attractive central square that sprouts bars in profusion. Other than the impressive Duomo and the domineering Palazzo Baronale, Leonforte’s most noteworthy sight is La Granfonte, overlooking the hills on the edge of town. Built in 1651, it’s not so much a fountain as a row of 24 waterspouts set in a sculpted facade of carvings and inscriptions. Once you’ve filled your water bottle, it’s time to move on, unless you fancy stocking up on the lentils for which the town is famous.
Nicosia
Sitting under looming crags, NICOSIA is a medieval mass of cracked palazzi topped by the remains of a Norman castle. Traffic all funnels up to the chatter-filled Piazza Garibaldi, the site of Nicosia’s lovely old cathedral, San Nicola, a stately construction with a fourteenth-century facade and belltower, and a handsome sculpted Gothic portal. To the side of the cathedral (left side, as you face the church), Via Francesco Salamone rises steeply to the former Saracen district of the town, a jumble of streets occupying one of the four hills on which Nicosia is built.
Santa Maria Maggiore
Via Francesco Salamone
Founded in 1267 but rebuilt after an eighteenth-century landslide, Santa Maria Maggiore has the bells from its campanile piled up outside – they fell down after another earthquake and the sound of them is now electrically reproduced. Inside, amid “No Spitting” notices, you’ll find an impressive marble polyptych by Antonello Gagini and a throne used by Charles V when he passed through here in 1535, on the way back from his Tunisian crusade. The views from outside encompass the town’s other three promontories, on the highest of which sits the ruined castle.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: NICOSIA
By bus Buses drop you a few minutes’ walk below Piazza Garibaldi.
Destinations Catania (5 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 2hr); Enna (3 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 30min); Gangi (4–7 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 40min); Leonforte (4–5 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 40min); Palermo (4 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 3hr 10min); Petralia Soprana (4–5 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 10min); Petralia Sottana (4–5 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 20min); Polizzi Generosa (2 daily; 2hr); Sperlinga (4–7 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 15min).
By car You might be able to park near the square for a short while, but it’s better to use one of the signposted parking areas as you drive into the centre.
ACCOMMODATION
Baglio San Pietro Contrada San Pietro 0935 640 529 or 335 876
7396, bagliosanpietro.com. Some 1km west of
Nicosia and signposted off the Sperlinga road, this is a
restored farm estate originally dating from the seventeenth
century. The comfortable rooms here make a good base for the
surroundings, as the farm has its own restaurant, pool and
gardens. €90
Sperlinga
Some 10km west of Nicosia, SPERLINGA owes its name to the numerous cave-dwellings (from the Latin spelunca, cave), some hundreds of years old, that pit the sandstone slopes below the town. Several were inhabited until recently, furnished with mod cons such as microwaves and fridges.
The castello
Daily 9.30am–1.30pm & 4–6.30pm • €2
With its storerooms, cellars, stables and steps hewn out of the rock, Sperlinga is dominated by a formidable battlemented castello. Sperlinga was the only town in Sicily to open its doors to the Angevins, bloodily expelled from other Sicilian towns during the thirteenth-century Wars of the Vespers: barricading themselves inside the castle, the French held out for a year before surrendering. Just below the castle, a small archeological and ethnographical museum (same ticket and times as castle) contains the usual motley collection of historical items and old agricultural and domestic artefacts.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SPERLINGA
By bus There is one daily bus to Sperlinga from Enna, run by SAIS
( saisautolinee)
and departing Mon–Sat during school term-time only from Enna’s
bus terminal, via Calascibetta, leaving at 2.10pm. The return is
the following day at 6.20am.
Troina
From a distance, TROINA appears like a thimble perched on a hill, 1120m high. A twisting 30km ride from Nicosia, the town has long played a strategic role in the various wars and power struggles that have racked Sicily, initially coming to prominence during the reconquest of Sicily from the Arabs, when it became one of the first cities to be taken by the Normans. Count Roger withstood a siege here in 1061 that nearly put paid to his Sicilian adventures, a victory he commemorated by founding the monastery of San Basilio, now in ruins. The top of town features an eleventh-century cathedral with an adjacent fifteenth-century church dedicated to San Giorgio (notice the relief of George and the Dragon above the door under the cupola). The wide piazza-terrace in front has a simply magnificent Etna view, while beyond stretches the main street. It’s laid out along a high ridge, and it makes for an atmospheric stroll down a narrow thoroughfare between noble mansions with a steep drop to either side.
THE SIEGE OF TROINA
In the summer of 1061, Count Roger marched his troops across the mountains from Messina, holing up in Troina, the highest place around. There he posted soldiers, and left his wife, Judith, while he went on to try and seize Nicosia from the Arabs. Unfortunately, Troina had a large population of Byzantine Greeks, who hated the Normans even more than they hated the Arabs, and one night they attempted to kidnap Judith, which resulted in rioting on the streets. Roger rushed back and, in the face of a united Arab and Byzantine attack, took refuge in Troina’s fortress. Roger and Judith spent four months of a freezing winter in the castle, with no fuel, and just one cloak between them, which they used as a blanket at night. One particularly freezing evening, Roger and Judith’s troops, starving and frozen, hearing the Arabs and Byzantines partying on wine in the town below, could stand no more, crept out over the snow and slaughtered them, finally bringing the siege to an end.
Cesarò
CESARÒ stands under fearsome crags at the crossroads of the SS120 and the SS289, the road that runs north across the Nébrodi mountains to the coast at Sant’Agata di Militello. On a clear day there are remarkable views over to Etna as you approach town, though the hemmed-in streets of Cesarò itself give no hint of the grandeur of its setting – for a panorama, you must climb or drive up to the mammoth bronze statue of Jesus, the Cristo Signore della Montagna, in the cemetery above town.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CESARÒ
By bus Isea Viaggi buses ( iseaviaggi.it) run once daily to Cesarò from Enna
via Leonforte, Nicosia and Troina, leaving Enna at 2pm, with
return buses departing from Cesarò at 5.20am the following
day.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Hotel Fratelli Mazzurco S.S. 120 Via Conceria 095 773 2100, hotelmazzurco.it. The Mazzurco not only has decent rooms but also the
town’s finest restaurant (Aug daily lunch and dinner; rest of
the year closed Thurs), specializing in local produce (namely
mushrooms, pork and pistachios). Portions are huge, so make sure
you are very hungry before ordering the fixed-price menu at €30.
There’s a garden-courtyard for al
fresco meals and some scintillating views from the
front of the hotel. €70
Caltanissetta
With twice as many inhabitants as Enna, the provincial capital of CALTANISSETTA (35km to the southwest) is easily the largest town in the interior, though little else about it is remarkable. Moreover, its sprawling modern suburbs give way suddenly to rolling empty fields beyond – the town is very much the last gasp before the almost ghostly rural expanses of Sicily’s western interior.
The largely traffic-choked centre breathes a sigh of relief around the prettily restored Piazza Garibaldi, with its splashing fountain, handsome Duomo and the wedding-cake confection that is the church of San Sebastiano. The churches may well be locked but they form a pleasing ensemble, while the nearby sandstone and salmon-pink Sant’Agata, at the other end of Corso Umberto I, is equally easy on the eye. You can also take a spin around the imposing walls of the seventeenth-century Palazzo Moncada two blocks to the north of Piazza Garibaldi, an aristocratic mansion belonging to one of Sicily’s great feudal dynasties. Down behind the Duomo (follow Via Pugliese Giannone and Via San Domenico) it’s less than ten minutes’ walk to one of the island’s stranger castle ruins, the Castello di Pietrarossa, improbably balanced on an outcrop of rock. It’s off-limits and looks like it should have fallen down years ago, though it’s finally getting some belated attention as restoration work continues on the adjacent church and monastery.
Museo Archeologico
Via di Santo Spirito • Tues–Sun 9am–1pm & 3.30–7pm; closed last
Sun of month • €4 • 0934 567 062 • Take a bus from the train station (direction
Villaggio Santa Barbara), and ask to get off near the museum; the stop
is about 300m from the museum; if driving, follow the brown “Museo
Archeologico” signs from town, though it’s easy to get lost
Located 3km north of the centre, the Museo Archeologico is a vast circular bunker straight out of the Thunderbirds school of architecture, and contains some of Sicily’s earliest finds (from the Bronze Age to the fourth century BC), including treasures like an unusual votive clay model of a temple. It’s all beautifully presented, with clear English notes throughout, and there’s unlikely to be another soul around save the slumbering attendants.
Santo Spirito
Alongside the Museo Archeologico, the restored twelfth-century abbey church of Santo Spirito was founded by Count Roger and – a rare thing in Sicily – is purely Norman in form. The plain structure is only enlivened by three tiny apses at the back, though the interior has a fifteenth-century fresco over the central apse and a twelfth-century font. If the church is locked, you can try ringing at the door on the right (home of the parish priest).
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CALTANISSETTA
By bus Caltanissetta’s bus station is at Piazza Roma, outside the train station, about a 10min walk from Piazza Garibaldi.
Destinations Agrigento (3–4 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 1hr 35min); Catania (13 daily Mon–Sat, 8 daily Sun; 1hr 35min); Enna (4–5 daily Mon–Sat; 50min); Palermo (7–10 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 1hr 40min); Piazza Armerina (5–8 daily; 30min).
By train Although buses are usually faster and more frequent, Caltanissetta has reasonable train connections with Enna, Palermo, Catania and Agrigento, but if you’re heading to Enna it’s easier to take the bus, as the town’s train station is a long way out from the centre. Going the other way, the railway line meanders northwest, ultimately to Palermo, through empty upland plains, one of the most desert-like of Sicilian journeys.
Destinations Agrigento (5–6 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 25min); Catania (7–8 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 40min); Enna (7 daily Mon–Sat, 5 daily Sun; 35min); Gela (3–4 daily; 2hr); Grammichele (7–9 daily Mon–Sat; 15min); Licata (3–4 daily; 1hr 20min); Palermo (4 daily; 2hr).
By car There’s currently cheap on-street parking all over town. Note that there is no entry to the Piazza Garibaldi or surrounding streets between 5pm and 8.30pm, while the evening passeggiata is in progress.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Azienda Agricola Silvia Sillitti 0934 930 733 or 338 763 4601, sillitti.it. Some 12km out of town off the
SS640 Agrigento road, this wonderful agriturismo is set on a working organic farm of olive
and almond groves, wheat fields and vegetable plots. There are
rustic rooms in three apartments, expansive terraces with views on
all sides, hammocks in the shade and a sparkling swimming pool.
Silvia is a charming host who prepares excellent Sicilian dinners on
request (€25), using produce from her estate. Two-person apartment
€90
Gran Caffè Romano Corso Umberto I 147 0934 21 402. Best café in town, with an
8m-long counter full of almond mandorle
biscuits (the local speciality), cannoli
and other treats, and chunky leather sofas outside on the pavement.
Daily 8am–8pm.
Piazza Garibaldi Piazza Garibaldi 11 0934 680 510 or 340 379 5803, piazzagaribaldi11.it. A first-class B&B
in a restored palace opposite the Duomo, with colourful bedrooms
sporting idiosyncratic murals. €60
Piazza Armerina
The small town of PIAZZA ARMERINA lies amid thickly forested hills. A quiet, unassuming place, it is mainly seventeenth- and eighteenth-century in appearance, with a skyline pierced by towers and houses that huddle together under the joint protection of decrepit castle and pristine cathedral. Despite the dense traffic that fills its lanes and thoroughfares, it’s a charming place that deserves a detour and even an overnight stop, though many visitors bypass it altogether, given the enticement of the mosaics at the nearby Villa Romana del Casale.
The town’s central core is small enough to cover in a morning’s stroll. Restoration has pretty much started and stopped in Piazza del Duomo, but the rest of Piazza Armerina is an endearing jumble of cobbled steps and faded grandeur, dilapidated yet graceful churches and palazzi, narrow streets and skinny alleys. There are noble mansions in varying stages of decay along Via Monte, formerly the medieval town’s main street, while down Via Floresta (to the side of Palazzo Trigona) you soon reach the closed and tumbledown castello, built at the end of the fourteenth century and surrounded by once-rich palazzi with broken windows and tattered wooden shutters.
Piazza Duomo
Duomo Daily 8am–noon & 4–7pm
Piazza Armerina’s best views are from the terrace of Piazza Duomo, at the very top of town. The town’s elegant seventeenth-century Duomo has a marvellously cool, blue-and-white stuccoed interior accessible through the small green door on the Via Cavour side of the building. Across from the cathedral campanile, and its blind Catalan-Gothic windows, stands the spruce facade of the eighteenth-century Palazzo Trigona, its simple brick exterior crowned by a spread-eagle plaque.
Castellina
The Castellina quarter, off Via Mazzini, is a fascinating area to explore, with steep residential alleys dropping down to the Porta Castellina, a surviving part of the medieval town wall – with a rough arch hacked through it for traffic access. From pretty Piazza Garibaldi, Via Mazzini, Via Garibaldi and Via Umberto I are the main old-town shopping streets, all leading eventually to the large twin squares that separate old town from new, with the Giardino Garibaldi gardens beyond.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP PIAZZA ARMERINA; SPERLINGA; CALTAGIRONE
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: PIAZZA ARMERINA
By bus Buses drop you off at Piazza Senatore Marescalchi, a large square on the main road in the lower, modern town, a 15min walk from the old centre. For bus information and tickets to Aidone, Caltagirone, Catania and elsewhere, ask in the Bar della Stazione in Piazza Senatore Marescalchi, or the AST office next door.
Destinations Aidone (6–13 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 15min); Caltagirone (5 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 30min); Catania (3–6 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 40min); Enna (3–6 daily; 30min); Gela (3–4 daily; 40min); Palermo (3–5 daily; 2hr 15min).
By car There’s metered on-street parking in the lower town, but you can get closer to the sights by following the signs for “centro” and then “Duomo”. The narrow streets may seem challenging, but a fairly sensible one-way system runs along Via Mazzini to Piazza Garibaldi and then dog-legs up Via Cavour to the Duomo – there’s a fair amount of metered parking on the way, and free parking in Piazza Duomo itself.
Tourist information There’s a tourist office at Viale Generale Muscarà 47 (Mon–Fri
8am–2pm; 0935 680 201).
ACCOMMODATION
B&B Umberto 33 Via Umberto 33 0935 683 344 or 340 558 6002, umberto33.com. A centrally located B&B
on one of the old town’s main shopping and strolling streets, with
three handsome en-suite rooms. €60
Gangi Via Generale Ciancio 68–70 0935 682 737, hotelgangi.it. A three-star hotel housed in a
sympathetically restored old palazzo in
the lower town, featuring exposed stone walls, a cobbled courtyard
and straightforward rooms. You can park nearby as well. €70
Ostello del Borgo Largo San Giovanni 6 0935 687 019, ostellodelborgo.it. This refurbished
fourteenth-century Benedictine convent has both hostel beds
(Hostelling International card required) and sixteen other private
rooms (singles, doubles and family rooms, with en-suite bathrooms),
all converted from former nuns’ cells and thus fairly spartan but
quiet and clean. Dorm beds €17;
doubles €60
Park Hotel Paradiso Contrada Ramaldo 0935 680 841, parkhotelparadiso.it. It’s out of the
historic centre, 1km beyond the church of Sant’Andrea (signposted
from town), but if you want a resort-style stay this is the place.
It’s a modern four-star with echoing public spaces aimed at the
convention-and-wedding market, but the rooms are pretty spacious and
well equipped, and there’s a pool, sauna, gym and formal restaurant.
€80
Suite d’Autore Via Monte 1 0935 688 553, suitedautore.it. Offbeat is hardly the word:
fabulously quirky accommodation in a redesigned old palazzo across from the Duomo (rooms with views cost
extra), where the themes come thick and fast (“Strangeness”, “Magic
and Irony”, “Fluidity”, etc) in fun-filled rooms that mix
contemporary design, stylish artefacts, retro objects, original art
and photography. If you’re especially taken by your Star Wars
bedside table or Philippe Starck chair, everything is also for sale.
The top-floor bar, for breakfast and evening drinks, has fabulous
town and country views, and there’s free parking right outside in
the square. €100
EATING AND DRINKING
The old-town restaurants have the most atmosphere and are handy for the B&Bs. The liveliest cafés and bars though are those around Piazza Generale Cascino, in front of the Garibaldi gardens. This is where to come at passeggiata time for a stroll, an ice cream or a beer.
Amici Miei Largo Capodarso 5 0935 683 541. “My friends” has charming
terrace seating outside and a rustic brick-walled dining room, plus
a menu that’s especially good for seafood, from baked bream to
sauteéd clams and mussels. Pastas and mains are €7–12, or there are
also really good pizzas (€2.50–8) at night. Daily lunch & dinner; closed
Thurs in winter.
Al Teatro Via del Teatro 6 0935 85 662. It takes a bit of finding
(easiest from the end of Via Garibaldi), but it’s worth it for the
terrace tables with nice views over the old theatre and town
rooftops. Try the home-made pappardelle,
or one of the thirty-odd different types of pizza (most dishes
€6–10). Daily lunch & dinner; closed
Wed in winter.
Da Totò Via Mazzini 29 0935 680 153. House speciality in this
local institution is the bocca di lupo, a
steak with prosciutto, aubergine and mozzarella (€12). Otherwise,
pastas and main dishes cost between €8 and €15, or go for pizza at
night. Daily lunch only; closed Mon in
winter.
Trattoria del Goloso Via Garao 4 0935 685 693. Good-value trattoria (most
dishes €6–10) just off Piazza Garibaldi, with a little outdoor
terrace. Try the home-made pasta (for a treat look out for pasta
dishes featuring pistachios) and follow up with deftly herbed
grilled local lamb. Daily lunch & dinner; closed
Wed evening in winter.
Villa Romana del Casale
Daily: April–Oct 9am–7pm; Nov–March 9am–5pm; last
entry 1hr before closing • €10 • villaromanadelcasale.it
Built on terraces in a sparsely inhabited neighbourhood 5km southwest of Piazza Armerina, the Villa Romana del Casale dates from the early fourth century AD and remained in use right up until it was covered by a mudslide in the twelfth century. It was then hidden from view for seven hundred years until excavations began in 1950, revealing multicoloured mosaic floors that are unique in the entire Roman world for their quality and extent. A roof and walls were added to indicate the original size and shape of the villa, and the mosaics are now protected from the elements, with walkways leading through the various rooms and chambers. It’s an essential visit on any trip to Sicily, but the continuous stream of coach parties and tour groups hardly makes for a relaxing trip. If you can, it’s best to come early or late in the day in order to avoid the heat and the crowds – the whole visit takes around an hour. In addition, there are ongoing restoration works and it pays to check the website, or ask at Piazza Armerina tourist office, before setting out to see the mosaics.
The site
Conflicting theories surround the function of the villa, but the most convincing explanation of its deeply rural location is that it was an occasional retreat and hunting lodge. That theory is supported by the many mosaics of animals and birds, including two specific hunting scenes. It’s also immediately clear from the extent of the remains that the villa complex belonged to an important owner, possibly Maximianus Herculeus, co-emperor with Diocletian between 286 and 305 AD. There are four separate groups of buildings, built on different levels of the hillside and connected by passageways, doors and courtyards. Nearly all of what you see would have been occupied by the family for which it was built – slaves’ housing and other outbuildings are still to be excavated properly.
While there are other splendid Roman villas in Italy, none has anything like the extraordinary interior decoration of the Villa Casale. The floors of almost the entire building are covered with bright mosaics of excellent quality, stylistically belonging to an early fourth-century Roman-African school, which explains many of the more exotic scenes and animals portrayed. Their design also contains several hints as to their period and patron, though given their extent they’re likely to have taken fifty or sixty years to complete.
The main building
The villa’s main entrance gives one of the best impressions of its former grandeur, with the approach leading through the remains of a columned arch into a wide courtyard. Today’s site entrance, though, is through the adjacent thermae (or baths): a typical arrangement of dressing/massage rooms and plunge-baths around an octagonal frigidarium, its central mosaic a marine scene of sea nymphs, tritons, and little cherubs rowing boats and spearing fish. A walkway leads out of the baths and into the villa proper, to the massive central courtyard or peristyle. This is where guests would have been received, and the vestibule displays a fragmented mosaic depicting a formal welcome by an attendant holding an olive branch. The corridor around the four sides of the courtyard is covered with a series of animal-head medallions: snarling tigers, yapping dogs and unicorns. Just off here, a balcony looks down upon one of the most vivid pictures, a boisterous circus scene showing a chariot race. Starting in the top right-hand corner, the variously coloured chariots rush off, overtaking and crashing at the turns, until finally there’s victory for the green faction. The next room’s mosaic shows a family attended by slaves on their way to the baths. Period detail – footwear, hairstyles and clothes – helped archeologists to date the rest of the mosaics.
Small rooms beyond, on either side of the peristyle, reveal only fragmentary geometric patterns, although one displays a small hunting scene, an episodic adventure that ends with a peaceful picnic in the centre. Another room contains what is the villa’s most famous image, a two-tiered scene of ten girls, realistically muscular figures in Roman “bikinis”, taking part in various gymnastic and athletic activities. One of the girls, sporting a laurel wreath and a palm frond, is clearly the winner of the competition.
The great hunting scene
The peristyle is separated from the private apartments and public halls beyond by a long, covered corridor, which contains the best of the villa’s mosaic works. The great hunting scene sets armed and shield-bearing hunters against a panoply of wild animals, on sea and land. Along the entire 60m length of the mosaic, tigers, ostriches, elephants and even a rhino, destined for the games back in Rome, are pictured being trapped, bundled up and down gangplanks and into cages. The caped figure overseeing the operation is probably Maximianus himself. Much of the scene is set in Africa, Maximianus’s main responsibility in the Imperial Tetrarchy, while an ivy-leaf symbol on the costume of the attendant to his right is that of his personal legion, the Herculiani.
The rest of the site
Family apartments and public halls beyond the great hunting scene are nearly all on a grand scale. A large courtyard, the xystus, gives onto the triclinium, a dining room with three apses, whose mosaics feature the labours of Hercules. One bloody scene portrays his fight against the giants, all struck by arrows, who writhe and wail with contorted faces. A path leads around the back to the private apartments, based around a large basilica, with mosaics echoing the spectacular scenes of the main building: a children’s circus, where the small chariots are drawn by colourful birds, and a children’s hunt, the tiny tots being chased and pecked by the hares and peacocks they’re supposed to snare.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: VILLA ROMANA DEL CASALE
By bus From Piazza Armerina, a bus (May–Sept) leaves Piazza Senatore Marescalchi for the Villa Romana on the hour between 9am and noon, and between 3pm and 6pm, with a stop at Piazza Generale Cascino; it’s a half-hour ride, and the return service is on the half-hour, starting at 9.30am.
By taxi A taxi from Piazza Generale Cascino in Piazza Armerina costs around €10 each way.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Mosaici da Battiato Contrada Paratore 0935 685 453, hotelmosaici.com. Located at the turn-off to the
Villa Romana, this country inn has reasonable rooms at low prices,
and a terrace-restaurant that’s subject to an influx of tour groups
at lunch. Closed Nov & Dec. €50
Trattoria La Ruota Contrada Paratore 0935 680 542. In an attractive rustic
setting a little way up the road from the Villa Romana, this
handsome former watermill offers shaded outdoor seating and
excellent regional food, from home-made pasta to local sausage, lamb
and rabbit (mains €98). The best place to eat near the mosaics.
Daily lunch
only.
Around Piazza Armerina
The extraordinary remains of the Greek city of Morgantina, which was at its height in the fourth century BC, lie 15km northeast of Piazza Armerina. That it’s not better known is a shame, but also a boon as your visit will be mercifully free of the tourist shenanigans associated with the famous Casale mosaics. Unfortunately, buses from Piazza Armerina only run as far as the pretty village of Aidone (site of Morgantina’s museum), with the archeological site itself another 5km beyond.
Aidone
Museo Archeologico Daily 9am–7pm • €6, or €10 with Morgantina • 0935 87 307 • Buses for Aidone leave from Piazza Senatore
Marescalchi in Piazza Armerina at least six times daily
With its quiet central square and thoroughly laidback air, AIDONE is a charming little spot. There are a couple of agreeable bars on the square and a crumbling church, but the true reason for a visit is the Museo Archeologico, impressively housed in a former Capuchin monastery on Largo Torres Trupia – it’s signposted, right at the top of the village. It makes an indispensable adjunct to seeing the Morgantina archeological site, since it’s here that you’ll find everything that was removed from the ancient city – from ceramics, statuettes and busts to coins, candle-holders and domestic artefacts. Aerial photos and plans also provide a useful idea of the layout of the site. The highlights, however, are the objects recently returned to Sicily from America, after years of legal battles: the exquisite Morgantina Venus (now known as the Dea di Morgantina, as it’s thought she is, in fact, Demeter); the so-called Eupolemo Silver, fifteen pieces of tableware dating from the third century BC; and the acroliths of Demeter and Persephone, the heads, hands and feet of sixth-century BC statues of the Goddess Demeter, and her daughter Persephone, or Kore.
THE RETURN OF THE GODDESSES
When Greeks began to arrive in Sicily during the eighth century BC, attracted by the island’s legendary fertility, their cults of gods and goddesses found fecund ground among the local inhabitants, who lived side by side with the Greeks in provincial towns such as Morgantina. Over time, indigenous fertility cults of death and rebirth centred on the annual cycle of harvests became intertwined with the Greek fertility cult focusing on the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. According to the myth, the summer months (when nothing grows in Sicily) occur when Persephone is in the underworld; then, at the beginning of autumn, when the seeds of the old crop are scattered, she returns to earth to be reunited with Demeter. (Interestingly, when the myth is retold in English, Persephone is absent from the earth in winter, and returns in spring, the myth having to be adapted to the exigencies of climate.) That Morgantina, in the agricultural interior of Sicily, where survival depended on the vagaries of the weather, should have been home to an immense temple to Demeter and Persephone, is thus no surprise.
In the summer of 1979, rumours began to circulate in Aidone about the secret discovery of several marble sculptures. They had been found, the story went, by illegal excavators, sponsored by the Mafia and working close to the site of Morgantina, a few kilometres away. A short while later, legal excavations revealed the foundations of a vast sanctuary at Morgantina dedicated to fertility goddess, Demeter. But there was no sign of any statues. A few years later, word spread among the New York art world of the acquisition, by an anonymous collector, of several elements of ancient Greek statuary. Then in 1986, hitherto unknown fragments of ancient Greek statues were exhibited at the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, on loan from a private and still anonymous collector; American archeologist Malcolm Bell, director of the legal excavations at Morgantina, was able to establish that the pieces had been stolen from Morgantina.
In 1988 Enna’s Public Prosecutor, Silvio Raffiotta, established that the pieces had been sold to multimillionaire Maurice Tempelsman, last husband of Jackie Onassis, via London art dealer Robin Symes. The Italian Ministry of Culture attempted to negotiate for the statues’ return to Sicily, but with no result. In 2002, however, Tempelsman donated the sculptures to the Bayly Art Museum of the University of Virginia, on three conditions: the donation had to receive no publicity, the donor had to remain anonymous, and the sculptures could not be returned to Italy for five years.
In early 2008, the university finally succumbed to pressure and agreed to return the statues to their rightful home, and in late 2009 the acroliths of Demeter and Persephone were put on public display in Aidone’s museum for the first time, “dressed” by innovative fashion designer Marella Ferrara. The exhibition marked the beginning of a series of restitutions to Sicily of antique objects scavenged from the site of Morgantina and sold to the Metropolitan Museum New York and Paul Getty. Euploemo silverware arrived in January 2010, followed in 2011 by the most important of all Morgantina antiquities: the so-called Morgantina Venus, a superb example of late fifth-century BC sculpture, showing a mighty goddess, with her drapery blown against her muscular, almost masculine, body.
Morgantina
Daily 9am–1hr before sunset • €6, or €10 including Museo Archeologico at Aidone
Five kilometres northeast of Aidone, at the end of a long cobbled lane, the site of Morgantina occupies two quiet hillsides with gorgeous views of the valley below. The car park is just under the east hill, and it’s around a 500m walk down to the main entrance and ticket office, where you’re given a brochure and map: all the signs on the site are in Italian and English.
After its demise in around 211 BC, the city became buried and forgotten for almost two thousand years, and even after the site’s discovery it wasn’t identified as Morgantina until 1957. To date, only a fraction of the city has been excavated, but the finds have shed much light on the island’s pre-Hellenic Sikel population, who inhabited central Sicily from the ninth century BC. In the sixth century BC, Chalcidian Greeks settled here and lived in harmony alongside the Sikels until the city became the centre of a revolt led by the Sikel leader Ducetius, who destroyed it in the mid-fifth century BC. Swiftly rebuilt on a grid plan with walled and towered defences, Morgantina reached its apogee in the fourth and third centuries BC under the protection of Syracuse, and many of the surviving buildings date from this period. A couple of hundred years later the city was in decline, and was soon abandoned altogether.
The agora and the teatro
Heading left into the site from the main entrance leads directly to Morgantina’s most distinctive ruin, the agora, bounded by three stepped sides that served as seats for public meetings. The small teatro to its right was built in the third century BC, but reconstructed in Roman times. Concerts, Greek plays and modern drama are sometimes held here in the summer – you can get more information from the tourist offices in Enna or Piazza Armerina.
The santuario and Fornace Grande
Other buildings here include a fourth-century BC santuario of Demeter and Kore, while on the level ground behind the agora is a granary and square slaughterhouse, beyond which stretches the 100m-long east stoa. A great kiln, the Fornace Grande, is one of the biggest ancient kilns ever excavated, and probably produced heavy-duty roof tiles, massive storage jars and the like. Further up the hillside in the residential quarter stand the ruins of some Hellenic houses, with two mosaic floors. One, the “House of Ganymede”, has an illustration of the youth Ganymede being carried away to Olympus by Zeus’s eagle to become the cupbearer of the gods.
The west hill
There’s an awful lot more of the site to explore, though in summer the heat might dissuade you. A path leads up to excavations on the west hill, which, though less revealing, include the fairly substantial remains of houses, roads and walls in what was another large residential area. In recent years, the remains of a second temple and a spring and aqueduct have also been unearthed.
Caltagirone
Around 35km southeast of Piazza Armerina, CALTAGIRONE is a curious place. One of the most ancient of Sicilian towns, it was settled well before the arrival of the Greeks, and has an Arabic name (from kalat, “castle” and gerun, “caves”), yet an overwhelmingly Baroque aspect, dating from the dramatic rebuilding after the 1693 earthquake that flattened the area. The Arabs, though, had one extraordinary and lasting influence on the town, introducing local ceramic craftsmen to the glazed polychromatic colours – in particular, blues and yellows – that subsequently became typically Sicilian in execution. Until the great earthquake, the town supported a population of around 20,000, of whom perhaps five percent were actively engaged in the tiled decoration of churches and public buildings. The Baroque rebuilding saw a further burst of creative construction, while later, during the nineteenth century, came the principal period of ceramic figurative work. Caltagirone’s traditional industry is still flourishing, with scores of ceramicists displaying work at galleries across the town, while public buildings, churches, house balconies and gardens all feature ceramics in every nook and cranny – not to mention the famous tiled steps of La Scala, Caltagirone’s pride and joy. The old centre is small and easy to see in half a day, but there’s an upbeat air here (and plenty of shopping opportunities) that makes a night an enjoyable prospect.
A GEOMETRIC DIVERSION
Just fifteen minutes east of Caltagirone by train, twenty by car (via the Ragusa road), Grammichele ranks among the strangest and most ambitious of the new towns built after the 1693 earthquake that flattened much of this land. At its heart is a hexagonal design centred on an imposing central piazza with six radial streets, each bisected by secondary piazzas. The shape is no longer entirely perfect, due to a surfeit of new building around the edges of town, but it makes for an intriguing couple of hours’ stroll, with all the streets in each segment corresponding exactly to their neighbours in dimension and appearance. It’s disconcertingly easy to lose your bearings and, despite the grand design, Grammichele remains a predominantly rural-looking, old-fashioned town. Piazza Carafa, the main square, has a handful of circoli, or clubs, where most of the town’s over-60s gather, while a café has ringside seats for all the comings and goings.
La Scala
Emblem of Caltagirone is undoubtedly the 142 steps of La Scala, which cuts right up one of the town’s three hills to the sorely neglected church of Santa Maria del Monte at the top. The staircase was originally conceived at the turn of the seventeenth century as a road between the church (then the cathedral) and the town centre below; the steps were added once it was clear that the incline was too steep. The risers in between each step are covered with hand-painted ceramic patterns, added in the 1950s, no two the same. Having puffed your way up, your reward is the magnificent view down across town to the distinctive spire of the Sicilian Baroque church of San Francesco all’Immacolata, with the plain stretching away into the distance beyond. At night the steps are lit, and couples and families spread out on them, chatting away. In May, there are floral decorations laid up the entire length, while on July 24 and 25 every year La Scala is lit by thousands of coloured paper lamps as part of the celebrations for the feast of St James (San Giacomo).
THE CITY OF CERAMICS
All the way up La Scala staircase, and in the alleys on either side, are ceramicists’ workshops and galleries, though you’ll also find shops and showrooms all over town. Some are huge warehouses, others just a room in an old house, selling copies of traditional designs or original work – plates, vases, jars, figurines – from just a few euros to a few thousand. The other Caltagirone specialities are sculpted terracotta whistles and presepi, or Nativity crib scenes; again, you can find examples in shops and galleries all across town.
Piazza Municipio
The main square of the old town is Piazza Municipio, where the sturdy seventeenth-century Corte Capitaniale, decorated by the Gagini family, is used for temporary art exhibitions. Named after the locally born mayor, reformer and anti-Fascist Luigi Sturzo (1871–1959), modern Galleria Luigi Sturzo is another exhibition venue.
Museo Civico
Carcere Borbonico, Via Roma 10 • Tues–Sun 9.30am–1pm, plus Tues & Fri–Sun
also 4–7pm • €4 • 0933 41 812
Off Piazza Umberto, the square building with grilled windows and spike-studded metal doors was a Bourbon prison in the eighteenth century, but now houses the Museo Civico. There’s nothing essential to see inside, just the usual intriguing collection of local curios, folklore items and architectural fragments, plus paintings by the Vaccaro family who renovated the cathedral in the nineteenth century.
Museo della Ceramica and the Giardino Pubblico
Via Roma • Daily 9am–6.30pm • €4 • 0933 58 418
The road to the newer town crosses the Ponte San Francesco – studded with ceramic flowers and emblems – and then runs down towards the large Giardino Pubblico (a 10min walk), where you’ll find the last word on the 5000-year-old tradition of local ceramics in the Museo della Ceramica. The gardens themselves are worth a whirl in any case, the centrepiece being a wonderful Art Nouveau bandstand, overlooked by a couple of kiosk cafés. This is one of several elegant examples in Caltagirone of the “Liberty” style – you’ll also pass the Art Nouveau theatre outside the main entrance to the gardens.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: CALTAGIRONE
By bus The bus station is in the lower town, 2km below the old centre and connected to it by half-hourly local bus.
Destinations Catania (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 1hr 30min); Enna (2 daily Mon–Fri, 1 daily Sun; 1hr 25min); Gela (2 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 10min); Grammichele (2 daily Mon–Sat; 30–40min); Piazza Armerina (5 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 20min); Ragusa (2 daily Mon–Sat; 2hr).
By train The train station is adjacent to the bus station.
Destinations Catania (7–8 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 40min); Gela (5 daily; 1hr); Grammichele (5 daily; 15min).
By car Driving right into the upper town is best avoided, and parking is easiest at the large free space off Viale Regina Elena, near San Giorgio church, from where it’s a 5min walk down Via Luigi Sturzo into the centre.
Information The main tourist office, Via Volta Libertini 4 (Mon–Fri 8am–2.30pm
& Wed 3–6.30pm; 0933 53 09), is down an alley
just off Piazza Umberto, and there’s a useful information desk
inside Galleria Luigi Sturzo, Piazza Municipio (Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Wed
8am–2.30pm & 3–6.30pm, Sun 9am–1pm & 3–7pm; 0933 41
365, comune.caltagirone.ct.it).
ACCOMMODATION
Il Piccolo Attico Via Infermeria 82 0933 21 588 or 320 077 3315, ilpiccoloattico.it. One large double room
with a bathroom, and one attic apartment composed of two double
rooms, with great views on all sides, taking in Etna. Generous
breakfasts. €60
La Pilozza Infiorata Via San Salvatore 97 0933 22 162 or 339 735 2861, lapilozzainfiorata.com. Rather fancy B&B
in a restored “Liberty”-style palazzo with
six individually styled en-suite rooms, three with cooking
facilities. There’s no view to speak of – the house is tucked into
an old-town street – but the rooms are spacious and comfortable, and
there’s a small terrace. €75
Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo Via Bongiovanni 72 0933 193 5106 or 392 213 3228, bbtremetrisoprailcielo.it. Caltagirone’s
best B&B is this perfectly situated place right on La Scala
steps, near the top. Helpful owner Gaetano has three simple rooms in
his charming house (you may have to share a bathroom, depending on
numbers), but he can also find space in up to half a dozen other
rooms in adjacent buildings. Everyone gets to take breakfast on the
top-floor terrace, which has a stupendous view over the town and
surrounding hills. €80
EATING AND DRINKING
Giardino Spadaro Via San Giuseppe 5 0933 21 331. Lamp-lit garden bar just up
an alley off the bottom of La Scala, which is cool and shady by day,
often thronged in the evening when the music is turned up. Mon & Wed–Sun usually
8am–8pm.
Il Locandiere Via Luigi Sturzo 55 0933 58 292. A tastefully restored old
restaurant that’s primarily a fish place, though there are good
vegetarian antipasti and pastas. The menu
depends on what’s off the boat, though fish couscous is usually
available. Mains are €9–16. May be closed Sun if they run out of
fish. Daily lunch &
dinner.
I Marchesi di Santa Barbara Via San Bonaventura 22 0933 22 406. Located within a cavernous
aristocratic mansion, with meals served in the echoing dining room
or out in the internal courtyard. There’s an upmarket regional menu
with reasonable prices (first courses €6–8, mains €10–16, and pizzas
in the evening), offering things like pasta with pistachios and
almonds, or pasta Marchese, with tomatoes,
wild fennel and breadcrumbs. Tues–Sun lunch &
dinner.