The best mountain towns inside a nature park in Sicilia
Sicilia has an interior of beech woods, holm oak and bare rock that surprises people who came for the sea. In the Madonie the villages are built of pale local limestone and sit high enough that snow falls most winters; on the flanks of Etna the same houses are cut from black lava, and the pavements and church doorways are black with them. Autumn is the season the mountains work best, when the chestnuts and porcini come in, the manna ash is still being tapped and the trattorie switch to lamb, wild fennel and aged pecorino. Even in August the evenings up here need a jacket.
Most visitors to eastern Sicilia base themselves in Taormina, and the crush is real: the Greek theatre, the Corso Umberto shops and the cable car down to the beach absorb enormous numbers between spring and October. It is a fine town with a famous view of Etna, which is precisely the problem, because everyone with a rental car and a cruise-ship morning is looking at the same volcano from the same terrace. Prices reflect it. So do the queues at the summit crater tours.
The mountains those tours look at carry on inland, and so do the parks protecting them. The Parco dell'Etna and the Parco delle Madonie hold whole towns inside their boundaries, places with Norman churches, Byzantine street plans and working sheep farms, reachable on the roads that climb away from the coast. Fewer people go, and the ones who do tend to be walking, eating or waiting out the summer. These are the towns in this list.
Of the 61 communes we have mapped in Sicilia, 8 qualify as mountain towns inside a nature park: each sits in the mountains, and each sits inside a regional nature park. The smallest, Geraci Siculo, has 1,702 residents.
Two more lists worth reading alongside this one: The best small towns inside a nature park in Sicilia and The best mountain towns within two hours of Catania.
Geraci Siculo
Why visit Geraci Siculo
Geraci Siculo sits at 1,077 meters on a sandstone ridge in the Madonie, the highest borgo of the Parco delle Madonie and one of the highest in Sicily. The first fortified nucleus dates to the mid-eighth century, when Byzantines retreated inland to escape Arab raids.
After the Norman conquest Roger I of Hauteville created the County of Geraci in 1072 and gave it to the Ventimiglia family; in 1258 the county was elevated to the first marquisate granted in Sicily. The Castello dei Ventimiglia, on the massive sandstone rock above the village, reached its definitive form in the early fourteenth century and still dominates the skyline.
From the ridge the view runs from Etna in the southeast to the Aeolian Islands in the north. The Madonie pasture economy underwrites the local cheese, particularly provola dei Nebrodi and ricotta from sheep flocks on the surrounding peaks.
The village placed third in the national Borgo dei Borghi competition.
The village sits at 1077 metres.
What to see in Geraci Siculo
- Castello dei Ventimiglia. Fourteenth-century castle on a sandstone outcrop above the village, the high point of the marquisate of Geraci from 1258.
- Chiesa Madre di Santa Maria Maggiore. Mother church at the centre of the village, with Renaissance and Baroque elements and works recovered from the Ventimiglia chapel.
- Centro storico. Medieval Madonie layout of stone houses on the ridge, with stepped lanes and narrow piazzas oriented to the castle rock.
How to get to Geraci Siculo
Palermo is roughly 106 minutes away by road.
Our tip
Geraci Siculo runs on alpine seasons: June through September is the summer window, when the ridge stays cool, the wildflowers cover the high pasture, and Etna is visible from the castle. December through March is the winter window, when snow falls on the Madonie peaks and the village turns to its cheese and slow-cooked food. April, May, October and November are quiet shoulder months, with fog rolling in off Pizzo Carbonara and many trattorie shut. Giostra dei Ventimiglia a Geraci Siculo falls in August.
Petralia Sottana
Why visit Petralia Sottana
Petralia Sottana sits at 1,000 meters in the heart of the Madonie, the second-highest range in Sicily after Etna. The town is the only commune in Sicily to hold a Bandiera Arancione from the Italian Touring Club, and the headquarters of the Parco delle Madonie are inside its territory.
The two Petralie, Sottana and Soprana, share a Roman and Byzantine origin and were rebuilt under the Normans on opposite slopes of the same ridge; Sottana, the lower of the two, became the administrative centre of the surrounding mountain villages. The Chiesa Madre, also known as the Chiesa Maria Santissima Assunta, is the largest place of worship in the Madonie, seventeenth-century and rebuilt around an earlier core in the Pusterna district.
The Chiesa di Santa Maria di Loreto, founded in 1484 and remade in the seventeenth century, has majolica spires that mark the south end of the centro. Piazza del Popolo holds the Neo-Gothic Palazzo Pottino, the marble Quattro Cannoli fountain of Billiemi stone, and the Oratorio delle Anime Purganti.
The village sits at 1000 metres.
What to see in Petralia Sottana
- Chiesa Madre (Maria Santissima Assunta). Seventeenth-century mother church on Piazza Umberto, the largest place of worship in the Madonie, in the ancient Pusterna district.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria di Loreto. Church founded in 1484 and rebuilt in the seventeenth century, with majolica spires and a marble altarpiece attributed to Giandomenico Gagini.
- Piazza del Popolo. Central square with the Neo-Gothic Palazzo Pottino of the Marquises of Eschifaldo, the Oratorio delle Anime Purganti and the Quattro Cannoli fountain.
How to get to Petralia Sottana
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Palermo is roughly 104 minutes away by road.
Our tip
June through September are the Madonie hiking months. Pizzo Carbonara stays cool above 1,500 meters even in August, and the trails radiate from Petralia Sottana into the beech and holm-oak woods of the park. December through March is the second season: at 1,000 meters the town gets reliable snow, and the Piano Battaglia ski station above the village runs the only working lifts in western Sicily. Ballo Pantomima della Cordella a Petralia Sottana falls in August.
Castiglione di Sicilia
Why visit Castiglione di Sicilia
The town looks down the Alcantara river valley between Randazzo and Taormina, its position fixed by Norman count Roger I, who documented it in 1092 as Castrileonis, the great castle. That name still fits the territory more than the town itself: the commune's boundary runs uphill from the historic centre all the way to the summit of Etna, taking in the north-east crater, so the same municipality holds a huddle of streets at 621 meters and a stretch of active volcano above it.
The hills below the centre are the heart of the Etna DOC. Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio grow on the volcanic soils around the village, with Carricante carrying the whites, and bottles from Cottanera, Passopisciaro, Tenuta delle Terre Nere and the Alcantara producers all ship from here.
Twenty minutes downhill the Alcantara has cut its gorges through the same lava that feeds those vineyards, basalt walls shaped by water where the fields above are shaped by the grape. Town, castle, vineyard and gorge read as one continuous volcanic system, worked over centuries into a fortress, a wine region and a river cut.
The village sits at 621 metres.
What to see in Castiglione di Sicilia
- Castello di Lauria. The fortress stands on its basalt outcrop above the town, its walls carrying the weight of two rebuildings by Ruggero di Lauria's crews. The rooms now hold the Enoteca Regionale for eastern Sicily, so the same stone that once watched for approach up the valley now stores the bottles made from the vines below it.
- Cuba Bizantina di Santa Domenica. Small Byzantine cube-shaped church, seventh to ninth century, in the rural outskirts of the commune, one of the oldest surviving structures in the Etna area.
- Gole dell'Alcantara. Basalt gorges carved by the Alcantara river through prismatic lava columns, around twenty minutes downhill from the centro storico.
How to get to Castiglione di Sicilia
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Catania is roughly 49 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October are the working months on Etna nord. Vineyard tours start in June, harvest runs late September through mid-October on the higher contrade, and the slopes turn red and gold into early November. July and August on Etna are bearable at 621 meters: nights drop to seventeen degrees, far cooler than Catania.
Polizzi Generosa
Why visit Polizzi Generosa
The name Polizzi is thought to derive from the Greek Polis Isis, City of Isis, and archaeological finds attest continuous settlement since at least the sixth century BC, including coins from the nearby Greek colony of Himera. The Normans rebuilt the hilltop settlement, and Frederick II later added the epithet generosa.
The old town climbs the ridge in stone houses, convents and churches, with the church and its twin bell towers at the summit, while the surrounding limestone massif, now protected as part of a UNESCO Global Geopark, supplies the slopes where hazelnuts are grown and where the town's convents once produced the sfoglio still made today. Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana was born here in 1958.
Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, the novelist who refused the Fascist loyalty oath in 1931 and emigrated to the United States, came from the same town. A settlement old enough to trace its name to Greek colonists, remade by Normans and by an emperor, still produces the same hazelnuts and the same pastry its convents made centuries ago, and still sends its people beyond the mountain.
The village sits at 917 metres.
What to see in Polizzi Generosa
- Chiesa Madre di Polizzi Generosa. Norman foundation rebuilt in Baroque style in the seventeenth century, with twin bell towers, a clock and a grand staircase at the top of the town.
- Museo Archeologico di Himera. Civic museum with finds from the area's continuous settlement, including coins and amphorae linked to the Greek colony of Himera on the coast.
- Parco delle Madonie. Regional natural park and UNESCO Global Geopark since 2015, covering the limestone massif that rises around the town.
How to get to Polizzi Generosa
Palermo is roughly 72 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the open season. At 917 meters the summer stays well below the coastal heat, the Madonie holds its forests through August, and the hazelnut harvest comes in late August and September. October fills the woods with mushrooms and turning beech.
Petralia Soprana
Why visit Petralia Soprana
Petralia Soprana sits at 1,147 meters at the heart of the Madonie Natural Park, the highest commune in the range. The town and its lower twin Petralia Sottana grew from the Roman Petra, then took its current form under the Normans, who fortified the ridge.
The Chiesa Madre, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, dates to the fifteenth century and faces Piazza Duomo with a clear view across the Madonie. Below the village, the Raffo salt mine runs 80 kilometers of tunnels through one of the largest salt deposits in Europe, mined since at least the fourteenth century; the active mine now hosts MACSS, a contemporary art museum carved into the salt, one of a kind worldwide.
RAI named Petralia Soprana Borgo dei Borghi in 2018, the year of the salt mine's wider opening to the public. The stone streets, the mountain air at 1,147 meters, and the salt below the floor are the three things the village trades on.
The village sits at 1147 metres.
What to see in Petralia Soprana
- Chiesa Madre (Santi Pietro e Paolo). Fifteenth-century mother church on Piazza Duomo, central monument of the village, with a baroque interior added after the 1693 earthquake.
- Miniera di Sale di Raffo. Active salt mine below the village with 80 km of tunnels in one of Europe's largest salt deposits, worked since the fourteenth century.
- MACSS — Museo Arte Contemporanea Sotto Sale. Contemporary art museum inside the active Raffo salt mine, sculptures cut directly into rock salt walls, the only museum of its kind worldwide.
How to get to Petralia Soprana
Palermo is roughly 88 minutes away by road.
Our tip
June through September brings dry mountain weather, ridge trails open across the Madonie, and temperatures stay below twenty-five even when Palermo touches forty. The salt mine and MACSS run all year, lit and warm inside. December through March catches snow at 1,147 meters and the village fills briefly with day-trippers from Cefalù coming up to see white roofs. Sagra del Grano a Pianello - Petralia Soprana falls in August.
Nicolosi
Why visit Nicolosi
Nicolosi sits at 698 meters on the southern slope of Etna, twelve kilometers north of Catania. The town was founded in 1359 around the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena.
In March 1669 a fissure opened above the town and Etna erupted for four months, lava burying part of the settlement and pushing on to Catania harbor. What remained was rebuilt around the church the flow had spared, and the cones left by that eruption, first called Monte della Ruina, later took their name from their color.
Above the rebuilt town the road climbs toward the volcano park and the cable car station, so that Nicolosi works as the point where the settled southern slope, its bread, honey and olive groves, gives way to the bare upper mountain. The town is where the ordinary, inhabited Etna ends and the crater country begins.
The village sits at 698 metres.
What to see in Nicolosi
- Monti Rossi. Twin cones standing over the town, walkable on paths that circle the craters, the ground still dark scoria underfoot.
- Funivia dell'Etna a Rifugio Sapienza. Cable car rising to 2,500 meters, the station reached twenty minutes uphill from Nicolosi and marking the start of the southern ascent on foot beyond the lift.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie. The church the lava did not reach, standing at the center of the rebuilt town, its fabric showing the later repairs made after further seismic damage.
How to get to Nicolosi
Catania is roughly 28 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October are the working months on the southern Etna slope. Nicolosi at 698 meters runs five to seven degrees cooler than Catania; July and August are bearable here while the coast is not. The Funivia dell'Etna operates year-round, with snow at the cable car upper station from late November through April.
Troina
Why visit Troina
Troina sits at 1,121 meters on the southern edge of the Nebrodi, one of the highest commune centers in Sicily, with Etna visible to the east on clear days. The area was settled in the seventh millennium BC and the urban core dates to the fourth century BC.
In 1061 Roger I took the Saracen castle here and made the town the first political and military base of the Norman conquest of the island. The Diocese of Troina, established in 1082, was the first Sicilian bishopric founded after centuries of Arab rule.
The Chiesa Madre, dedicated to Maria Santissima Assunta, stands at the highest point of the town with its Norman tower still intact, the earliest Norman cathedral built in Sicily. Below the centro storico, the ruins of the Basilian monastery of San Michele Arcangelo, endowed by Count Roger, sit on an outcrop above the Fiume sotto di Troina valley.
The Nebrodi Park surrounds the commune on three sides.
The village sits at 1121 metres.
What to see in Troina
- Chiesa Madre (Maria Santissima Assunta). First Norman cathedral built in Sicily, founded under Roger I after 1061, with its original Norman bell tower still standing at the highest point of the centro storico.
- Castello di Troina. Medieval fortress taken from the Saracens by Roger I in 1061 and used as the political and military base of the Norman conquest of Sicily; partial walls and towers survive.
- Monastero di San Michele Arcangelo. Ruined Basilian monastery on a rocky outcrop below the town, endowed by Count Roger after the conquest and one of the oldest Norman monastic foundations on the island.
How to get to Troina
Catania is roughly 61 minutes away by road.
Our tip
June through September brings dry highland weather, ridge trails open across the Nebrodi, and temperatures stay below thirty even when the Sicilian coast burns. December through March is the second season: Troina's altitude catches snow, and the Nebrodi roads close for storms but the town itself stays open. April, May, October and November are quiet and often wet, the wind sharp on the ridge, with many guesthouses shut.
Randazzo
Why visit Randazzo
Randazzo sits at 750 meters on the northern foot of Etna, seventy kilometers northwest of Catania along the Alcantara valley. Byzantine in origin, Swabian and medieval in character, the town has three great churches that mark its three historic quarters, once inhabited by communities that spoke different tongues: the Latins in Santa Maria, the Greeks in San Nicolò, and the Lombards in San Martino.
In 1210 Frederick II of Hohenstaufen and his young wife Constance of Aragon sheltered here from the plague in Palermo; Randazzo became, after Palermo and Messina, one of the most populous towns on the island. The architecture is lava: Santa Maria Assunta, begun in the thirteenth century, has a façade entirely in black volcanic stone with three polygonal apses shaped as towers and Catalan-Gothic side portals.
The forty-one-meter bell tower of San Martino, called one of the most beautiful in Sicily, has stood since the thirteenth century.
The village sits at 750 metres.
What to see in Randazzo
- Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta. Thirteenth-century basilica in black lava stone with three polygonal apses shaped as towers and fifteenth-century Catalan-Gothic side portals.
- Chiesa di San Martino. Church of Swabian origin from the thirteenth century with a forty-one-meter bell tower in four storeys, anchor of the Lombard quarter.
- Chiesa di San Nicolò. Largest of the three quarter churches, repeatedly rebuilt; the fourteenth-century bell tower fell in the 1693 earthquake.
How to get to Randazzo
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Catania is roughly 60 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the open season. At 750 meters Randazzo stays cooler than the Catanese coast even in August; the harvest in the Etna Nord vineyards runs September into October. November through April is quiet; snow falls on the upper slopes through winter and the town gets occasional dustings.
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