a (special) tour in the land of ten waterfalls

Three-day excursion to Mistretta, a large municipality in the Nebrodi Park. Twenty churches from the magnificent sandstone portals, the mighty walls of a castle, a territory that includes many ten waterfalls: a record.

With our group “Camminare i peloritani” we carried out a three-day excursion, which should certainly be counted among the special ones. It took place in Mistretta, a municipality in Messina, 90 kilometers away from the capital with a height of approximately one thousand meters located in the Nebrodi Park.

On the first day we visited the town centre, notable for its numerous churches with truly magnificent and sumptuous facades and portals with countless anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic sculptures which the local master stonemasons created using the robust sandstone which is very present on site and which was used as a construction material for a good part of the single-family homes with roofs covered in red tiles and which were accessed via large and sturdy stone steps.

Adv

We went to the regional museum of forestry-pastoral traditions which represented not only shepherds, but also woodcutters, charcoal burners and hunters.

Over time, all those who have valorised the internal areas of the island by developing forms of culture and habitats strongly rooted in this peculiar ecosystem.

Here we met a notable character, Mister Meatball, a master dog. He joined us, they told us that he usually does this when he sees “movement”, he diligently followed all the explanations and then left due to his own facts. They told us that he has a very independent character.

Some time ago they saw him wandering around the town after someone had abandoned him, so the Municipality put a collar on him and he became municipal property. Since then he spends his days wandering around the town but favoring the central streets and judging by the looks of it he isn’t left to starve. In the evening he chooses a door and with his rather robust size bangs against it.

The owners understand that it is Polpetta who has invited himself for the night, they open the door and welcome him. The next evening he will do the same but at another door. So over the years he became very popular, but he didn’t want to be tied to any master.

After the urban interlude in the evening we visited the castle largely in ruins, but with the mighty walls still standing. We arrived there in the evening via a beautiful staircase recently renovated and illuminated.

We saw the entire town center immersed in darkness from above and undertook a nocturnal descent through poorly lit alleys and streets. One member of the group was lost, I hoped it would take her some time to find us to give a bit of “suspense” to the evening, but it wasn’t even a quarter of an hour later that we saw her appear.

The next day we dedicated ourselves to the main objective of our trip: discovering the Mistretta waterfalls: ten, a record.

They have recently entered the headlines, previously they were simply ignored, farmers and shepherds hastily referred to them as cliffs.

On the second day we walked along a dirt path where the local guide, Daniela, also explained to us the characteristics of some plants including the Euphorbia with its magnificent yellow flowering and the properties of St. John’s Wort. To reach the waterfall we instead lowered ourselves down a steep path where we had to try to hold on and help ourselves by supporting each other and with the help of the plants. A touch of adventure doesn’t hurt.

Then, balancing on the stones for a while, we finally reached a magnificent and large waterfall gushing out foaming in the middle of sandstone rocks, pouring out and forming a lake of clear green water in which its thunderous force seemed to calm down.

On the third day, to get to the other waterfalls, we followed a dirt and at times stony path that went through the hedges of thorny gorse that formed large patches of sparkling yellow.

More beyond the usual flowery meadows dotted with white and yellow daisies. Finally we reached the stream with a stony bed and transparent green waters. In one stretch there was a quiet body of water which with its slow flow gave a feeling of idyllic concentration.

After doing acrobatics between the stones, embracing the largest boulders, climbing over the belly, leaning on ourselves and sliding on our bottoms, we deserved the grandiose spectacle of the second large waterfall: beautiful for its flow in the middle of the green rocky wall and above all for its the large and circular emerald green lake which was its worthy corollary.