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San Gandolfo Festival
The 7th Wednesday after Easter and the 3rd week end in September
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The Most Holy Crucifix
Starts May 1st
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La Sagra delle Nocciole (The Hazelnut Festival)
Always in August usually after the 15th, a moveable date

Lo Sfoglio
Late August

Santa Lucia
December 13

 
 
 
 

Associated Links

www.go-sicily.it

www.visitingsicily.it

www.timesofsicily.com


 


'That' magical view of a village perched high in The Madonie

Posted by Suzanne Turrisi on 01 Jul 2019

 

A 'most beautiful' village of Italy

Up high in the Madonie Mountains, within the Madonie National Park in northern Sicily, there is the small, lofty medieval village of Petralia Soprana; it’s about half an hour or so from Polizzi Generosa and it was a 2018 winner in the prestigious Most Beautiful Villages of Italy.

I returned to Petralia Soprana on a cool spring day this May, ate a tasty lunch, wandered the narrow streets and I came across 'that' magical view (see below) of this ‘most beautiful’ village.

 

Lunch in Petralia Soprana

Lunch that day included: fresh ricotta frittata, golden and fluffy, hearty lentil soup and some house red at the welcoming, Trattoria Da Salvatore. Salvatore’s trattoria sits on one of Petralia’s lovely piazzas, Piazza San Michele and it carries the coveted “red snail’ of Slow Food Italy fame. 

It is one of my favourite places to eat in the Madonie.

Outstanding views to Sicily's interior

After lunch I crossed Piazza San Michele and walked up the hill to a belvedere (a spot I like to go to when in Petralia Soprana) tucked in behind the gated, mid-18th century church of Santa Maria di Loreto where the views to the Sicilian interior -the village of Gangi (a 2014 beautiful village winner) wrapped around a mountain, and the behemoth Mt Etna which, on a clear day can be spotted plus green fields all which make this part of Sicily hard to beat.

Even with all this deliciousness it was walking a narrow stone pathway below the secluded belvedere and finding 'that' incredible view of beautiful Petralia Soprana that stopped me that day.

 

What an incredible 'Medieval' looking scene 

I noticed a young couple (who were at the next table in Salvatore’s) on the pathway and went down.

I walked the cobblestones, bordered with trees, wild spring flowers and newly slashed grasses and headed to a cross fixed on a viewing landing and after a while I turned and saw 'that' medieval scene of Petralia Soprana perched very high with pointed majolica clad spires, apses and round stone walls with the cobblestone pathway in the foreground - something out of a fairytale.

I couldn’t believe it. I was seeing the scene which I had come across, in the past months, on a couple of Instagram accounts about things Sicily.- (one was Lavinia Alberti's -  lavi.91). I had had no idea where this wonderful, now discovered scene of Petralia Soprana was shot from!

After so many visits to Petralia Soprana I had never seen this jaw dropping view of lovely Petralia or even noticed the path below (was it often overgrown? or did I just miss it!). 

Not to be missed

When exploring the Madonie don’t miss this snapshot of  'medieval' Sicily.

It has got to be one of Sicily’s best bits of magic!

 

 

Salve

Suzanne

 

Edited July 2: In the 4th section the words 'with the cobblestone pathway' have been added

 


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