2024 is the year of Italian roots of the world, and to celebrate this occasion 46 Sicilian villages have decided to open the doors of hundreds of hidden treasures that will be possible to discover in the days starting from 10 to 26 Mayduring the Borghi dei Tesori Roots Festival.
How the Borghi dei Tesori Roots Festival takes place
As mentioned, the Borghi dei Tesori Roots Festival will take place during the three weekends from 10 to 26 May. Days in which all visitors will be able to do many different activities: there will be 46 villages scattered like pieces of a single mosaic, around 500 sites, walks and unmissable experiences and much more.
THE villages of this 2024 edition – coordinated by Michele Ruvolo with Giovanna Cirino, Marco Coico, Alessandra Fabretti, Alida Fragale – represent all nine Sicilian provinces: they are Alcara Li Fusi, Balestrate, Baucina, Bisacquino, Bompietro, Buccheri, Burgio, Calascibetta, Calatafimi Segesta, Caltabellotta, Cammarata , Camporeale, Centuripe, Cassaro, Chiusa Sclafani, Ciminna, Collesano, Contessa Entellina, Custonaci, Delia, Frazzanò, Gangi, Geraci Siculo, Giarratana, Giuliana, Isnello, Licodia Eubea, Mirto, Montelepre, Monterosso Almo, Montevago, Petralia Soprana, Petralia Sottana, Pettineo, Piedimonte Etneo, Pollina, Portopalo di Capo Passero, Prizzi, Sambuca di Sicilia, San Piero Patti, Santo Stefano Quisquina, Siculiana, Sutera, Trappeto, Valledolmo, Vallelunga Pratameno.
Three weekends according to the tried and tested formula Streets of Treasures: the villages will open and animate the “family treasures”. And since taste is also a weapon of knowledge, practically every municipality has drawn from its most authentic culinary traditions to create experiences, show cooking, tastings, visits to vineyards, dairies, olive groves, even pastry shops and butchers.
Visiting everything will be practically impossible, and for this reason some interesting itineraries have been suggested to help you discover the most authentic Sicily. We at SiViaggia we have selected three beautiful ones out of the six available that are equally beautiful.
The jewels on the Madonie mountains
The itinerary called The jewels on the Madonie mountains allows you to learn more about 11 dream Sicilian villages, all perched on the mountains like many small nativity scenes.
We start from Baucina who celebrates Santa Fortunata by opening her sanctuary, and who will also lead the women of the village to prepare a very particular (and delicious) sfincione with them; then Ciminna, where you can “breathe” The Leopard (in 300 set photos) and where you still seem to listen to the Te Deum in the majestic church of Santa Maria Maddalena; Still Valledolmo, which celebrates its debut, the village in which the Stagnone opens, a true, enormous cathedral of water; a welcome return it is Bompietro, where you will meet a lawyer who has decided to change his life by relaunching an old dairy farm.
The two Petralie they answer “present”: in Soprana you will pet the goats but above all you will discover the amazing SottoSale sculpture museum in the Italkali mine. TO SkirtInstead, we will visit the Catarratti power plant and participate in very special “yoga” sessions. Then again Geraci Siculo, where you can get lost among churches and buildings, arriving at the spectacular Salto dei Ventimiglia. Gangi returns, the “mountain dressed in houses”, an intact medieval village where nature and man live in perfect symbiosis at a thousand meters above sea level.
A little further down, in the lower Madonie mountains, there is Isnello, considered one of the places to admire the best starry sky in the world. Not to be missed Pollina, among professions of the past, lost flavors and art treasures. In the end Collesanowhich will lead to the discovery of his castle, of Father Umile’s crucifixes, and with an infinite series of regenerative experiences.
The ancient heart of the island
Another particularly interesting proposed itinerary is called de The ancient heart of the island and allows you to discover 7 villages in Sicily, starting from Calascibettathe paradise of archeology enthusiasts, among cave necropolises, Byzantine villages, and medieval prisons.
Then there is Centuripe, with its very particular shape of a Vitruvian man or a starfish. Here they will explain how an “archaeological artist” perfectly reproduces the red-figure vases of the ancient Greeks. Going towards the Palermo area, it is there Vallelunga Pratameno where this year the faithful reconstruction of a monarchic classroom returns within what were once the village’s primary schools.
TO Cammarata, instead, we will go in search of treasures on the trail of the Norman domina Lucia, and we will climb Mount Cammarata, the highest peak of the Sicani mountains, while Santo Stefano Quisquina there will be only one unmissable visit to the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia.
A trek will lead to the inviolable fortress above Sutera and the novelty, Delia, where you will discover the places of the Jewish community and one of the rare Arab castles in Sicily. Finally, we will let ourselves be guided by the aroma to taste the best bread in the world, a Borgo Santa Rita.
In the greenery of the Nebrodi
The last itinerary we suggest is called In the greenery of the Nebrodi and it is a riot of emotions through 6 villages. The journey starts from Frazzanò, where there is the only Basilian monastery in Sicily with the Kîmesis, a rare fresco that recalls the style of Byzantine art; Then Alcara Li Fusi with San Pantaleone, the seventeenth-century organ, among the oldest in Sicily.
In the shops and homes of San Piero Patti a very particular Gallo-Italic dialect is still spoken, but the workshops of the Carmelite convent where the ancient art of weaving is handed down are worth a visit. Then Myrtleanother village where new tastings and gastronomic visits will dominate and the new entry, Pettineowhich celebrates the occasion of the altar of Sant’Oliva’ which turns 400 years old exactly like the Festino of Palermo, and exposes the shreds of the “Kilometer of canvas” of the artists that the patron Antonio Presti donated to the citizens.
Lonely on Etna, that’s it Piedmont Etna with its magnificent neoclassical buildings, the hamlets of Vena and Presa, but above all the unexpected possibility of climbing the bell tower of the Mother Church and visiting the crypt and cloister of the Capuchin convent.
