The best towns inside a nature park that eat well in Sicilia
Sicilia's nature parks are mountain country, which surprises people who arrive expecting only coast. The Madonie hold beech and holm oak above stone villages the colour of the rock they were cut from, the Nebrodi keep black pigs and cattle on high pasture, and Etna's lower slopes are terraced in lava walls with vines and pistachio and apple. The food follows the altitude: ricotta still warm in spring, porcini and wild mushrooms after the autumn rain, manna tapped from ash trees, sheep's cheeses, and red wine grown on volcanic sand. Winter brings snow to the higher passes and a different, heavier register of cooking, soups and grilled meat and bread baked in wood.
Most visitors to the island move along the coast road and through Palermo, Siracusa and Agrigento, where the Valley of the Temples takes the bulk of the day-trip traffic and the summer heat sits over the car parks. It is a reasonable circuit, since the Greek and Baroque sites really are the best of their kind anywhere, and the cruise schedules and coach tours are built around them. The consequence is that the interior of Sicilia, which is where most of the protected land actually is, sees a fraction of the same people.
The same landscape carries on inland and upward, into parks that are lived in rather than fenced off, with working farms, old ducal towns and restaurants that cook from the hillside around them. These are the towns inside those parks where a dining guide has picked out a table, some of them within sight of the sea, others high enough to look down on the cloud. Fewer people go, and the driving is slower, and both of those are arguments in their favour.
Of the 61 communes we have mapped in Sicilia, 7 qualify as towns inside a nature park that eat well: each sits inside a regional nature park, and a dining guide has named a table in each. The smallest, San Marco d'Alunzio, has 1,778 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The 9 best towns inside a nature park that you can reach by train in Sicilia and The best hidden towns you can reach by train that eat well in Sicilia.
San Marco d'Alunzio
Why visit San Marco d'Alunzio
The borgo sits on Mt. Castro, five kilometers from the Tyrrhenian coast.
The Greeks founded it as Alontion, prosperous enough to mint its own currency, and the settlement they built has never fully left: what they raised became the base for what came after, layer on layer, rather than being cleared away for it. The upper town holds the ruins on Monte Rotondo, the lookout that gave the Normans command of the coast below.
The historic center, walled and compact, holds twenty-two churches and is listed among the Borghi più belli d'Italia. Through all of it runs the same pink stone, quarried on the surrounding hills, cut for church interiors, piazza fountains and, beyond the town itself, for the interior of the Messina town hall.
A place built repeatedly from its own ground: Greek temple, Norman stronghold and marble borgo standing on the same hill in the same rose-colored rock.
Demenna Luogo di Ristoro have been named by a guide.
What to see in San Marco d'Alunzio
- Tempio di Ercole. The foundations sit beneath the Chiesa di San Marco, making it the oldest visible structure in the borgo, its stones absorbed into the later church above.
- Ruderi del Castello Normanno. Ruins on Monte Rotondo above the village, standing as the lookout point over the Tyrrhenian coast.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie (Aracoeli). Renaissance church built entirely in the local rose-colored stone, with elaborate marble carvings inside the chapel.
How to get to San Marco d'Alunzio
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Messina is roughly 85 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the best months. The 540-meter ridge stays cooler than the Tyrrhenian below, the pink Aluntina stone catches the afternoon light, and the climb up to the Norman castle ruins is easy in dry weather. July and August are hot but the centro storico shaded streets give shelter.
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.
Cave Ox, La Riserva Bistrot have been named by a guide.
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.
Castelbuono
Why visit Castelbuono
Castelbuono sits at 423 meters on the northern slope of the Madonie, an hour inland from Cefalù and the Tyrrhenian coast. The town developed in the fourteenth century around the castle built by Count Francesco I Ventimiglia in 1317 on a pre-existing twelfth-century watchtower; the Ventimiglia were among the most influential families in medieval Sicily, and their court held here for generations.
The castle today houses the Museo Civico Francesco Minà Palumbo, with natural history, sacred art and archaeology from the Madonie territory. The Matrice Vecchia, the old mother church begun in 1362 under Francesco II Ventimiglia, mixes Roman-Gothic, Catalan-Gothic and Chiaramontane elements, with a 1520 polyptych attributed to Antonello De Saliba (nephew of Antonello da Messina) on the main altar and a fully frescoed crypt below the presbytery.
The town keeps the last working manna industry in Europe, the sweet sap collected by cutting Madonie ash trees in summer. Pasticceria Fiasconaro, founded here in 1953, now ships panettone and Ypsigro lines worldwide and opened a flagship in Manhattan in 2025.
In August the village runs the Ypsigrock indie festival, one of Italy's longest-running.
Nangalarruni, Palazzaccio have been named by a guide.
What to see in Castelbuono
- Castello dei Ventimiglia. Fourteenth-century castle built in 1317 by Francesco I Ventimiglia on a twelfth-century watchtower, now home to the Museo Civico Francesco Minà Palumbo.
- Chiesa Matrice Vecchia. Mother church begun in 1362, mixing Roman-Gothic, Catalan-Gothic and Chiaramontane styles, with a 1520 polyptych by Antonello De Saliba.
- Cripta della Matrice Vecchia. Crypt under the presbytery of the old mother church, walls fully frescoed with the life, Passion and Resurrection of Christ.
How to get to Castelbuono
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 74 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the working months in Castelbuono. The chestnut and beech woods of the Madonie turn in October. The Ypsigrock indie festival fills the centro for four days in mid-August, the only week the town runs at coastal capacity. Festeggiamenti in onore di Sant'Anna a Castelbuono falls in July.
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.
Veneziano, San Giorgio e il Drago have been named by a guide.
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.
Taormina
Why visit Taormina
The town sits at 204 meters on the rock above the coast, on the Ionian shore halfway between Messina and Catania. The Siculi welcomed the survivors of the Greek colony of Naxos in 358 BC after Dionysius of Syracuse destroyed it, and Andromachus refounded them as Tauromenium on the height above.
Augustus later made it a Roman colony, deporting much of the population and resettling it with Roman families. The centro sits below the fortress and above the sea: the Arab-Norman stronghold occupies the rock at 397 meters, while further up the hillside the frazione of Castelmola hangs at 884, both looking down on the same stretch of coast the theatre faces.
The small island reserve lies at the opposite end of that vertical arrangement, at sea level below the cliff, reached by cable car or path from the town above. A place built in tiers, from the beach at the base to the fortress on the rock to the village above that, all of it oriented toward the same view of the volcano and the water that made a nineteenth-century travel writer's description enough to start a tourist route still followed today.
St. George by Heinz Beck, La Capinera, Vineria Modì and 11 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Taormina
- Teatro Antico. The stone rows face south, so the audience looks past the stage wall to Etna rather than toward it. 109 meters in diameter, the remodelling under Roman rule widened the space for spectacle beyond Greek drama.
- Palazzo Corvaja. Fourteenth-century Sicilian-Gothic palace at the entrance to Corso Umberto, on the site of the Roman forum and the Arab cube of the citadel.
- Castello di Monte Tauro. Arab-Norman fortress at 397 meters on the rock above the centro, reached on foot from Via Circonvallazione.
How to get to Taormina
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 45 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May, June, September and October are the working months in Taormina. Late spring keeps the air clear over Etna and the cruise season has not yet peaked. Taormina Arte runs concerts and opera at the Teatro Antico from June through August; the same weeks bring the highest crowds on Corso Umberto.
Cefalù
Why visit Cefalù
Cefalù sits 70 kilometers east of Palermo where the Madonie meet the Tyrrhenian, the old town built on a strip of land between the sea and the headland that gave the place its name. The Greeks called it Kephaloidion in the fourth century BC.
Roger II refounded the town at the foot of the rock in 1131 and began the cathedral the same year; tradition holds he vowed to build it after surviving a storm offshore. Its mosaics were executed by masters he brought from Constantinople.
The old town keeps the cathedral, the museum, and the working port within the same short walk, the stone lanes running straight down from the Duomo's square to the sea and the lavatoio fed by its own spring along the way. The beach runs below on one side, the rock rises behind on the other, and the harbor still works at the foot of it.
A small coastal town, built once by the Greeks and refounded by a Norman king against the same rock, still reads as one place rather than several eras stacked on top of each other.
Locanda del Marinaio, Cortile Pepe, Cala Luna and 1 more have been named by a guide.
What to see in Cefalù
- Duomo di Cefalù. Twin-towered cathedral built by Roger II, its west front facing a narrow square hemmed by the old town. Inside, the mosaic apse is reached down a nave still laid out to Norman proportions, the Arab-Norman UNESCO listing covering both the fabric and the decoration.
- La Rocca. The trail switchbacks up bare limestone above the roofs, past the megalithic sanctuary walls before reaching the castle ruins, where the town, the harbor, and the coastline in both directions open out below.
- Museo Mandralisca. Private nineteenth-century collection in an eighteenth-century palazzo, holding the Portrait of an Unknown Sailor and Greek vases from Lipari.
How to get to Cefalù
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 63 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May, June, September and October are the windows for Cefalù. The Tyrrhenian is warm enough to swim from mid-May, the cathedral and the climb up La Rocca are bearable in the morning, and the town isn't yet at full crowd. July and August fill the beach and the lungomare past capacity, with Palermo and northern European holidaymakers; the cathedral keeps its mosaics behind a steady queue. Festa SS. Salvatore a Cefalù falls in August.
Giarre
Why visit Giarre
Giarre sits on the lower eastern slope of Etna at eighty metres, thirty kilometres north of Catania and three from the sea at Riposto. From the late sixteenth century until 1815 it was a village of the county of Mascali; it separated after the abolition of feudalism and built itself a town centre in the decades that followed.
The Duomo di Sant'Isidoro Agricola, begun in 1794 and opened for worship in 1818, is the result: a neoclassical mother church in white stone, with a large central nave, two lateral naves, a transept, and a dome with lantern. The two bell towers, designed by the Neapolitan architect Pietro Valente, were begun in 1859 and finished only in 1890.
Inside, the church holds one of the most substantial collections of sacred silverware in eastern Sicily. From 1939 to 1945 Giarre was merged with Riposto under the fascist name Jonia.
The two towns still form a single conurbation along the coast.
Cioccolateria e Caffetteria Fabbrica Finocchiaro, Casu Osteria Contemporanea have been named by a guide.
What to see in Giarre
- Duomo di Sant'Isidoro Agricola. Neoclassical mother church begun in 1794, two bell towers by Pietro Valente, and one of eastern Sicily's largest collections of sacred silverware.
- Piazza Duomo. The main square at the centre of the historic grid, with the duomo facing the foothill of Etna to the west.
- Corso Italia. The principal axis of the town, running between the duomo and the open country towards Riposto and the sea.
How to get to Giarre
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 26 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June, then September and October, are when Giarre is at its best: clear views of Etna from the duomo square, citrus blossom on the slopes above town, and the coast at Riposto still calm. July and August are hot and crowded along the seafront, though the upper town keeps cooler at eighty metres. November through March is the quiet season, with rain off the Ionian and snow on the volcano.
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