Parco Regionale
Parco Regionale in Sicily
16 towns
Sicily holds 16 Parco Regionale sites inside our catalogue. Most cluster in the Palermo, Catania, and Agrigento provinces.
The three most recognized in our catalogue are Sambuca di Sicilia, Nicolosi, and Castiglione di Sicilia. 13 more towns carry the mark alongside them.
The towns
Sambuca di Sicilia
Province: Agrigento · 350 m
An Arab-founded hill town in the Belice valley, still called Zabut in living memory before 1923.
Nicolosi
Province: Catania · 698 m
The southern gateway to Etna at 698 meters, twice destroyed by the 1669 eruption.
Castiglione di Sicilia
Province: Catania · 621 m
A hill town on the north flank of Etna at 621 meters, base camp for the Alcantara valley and the volcano's most serious red wines.
Cefalù
Province: Palermo · 16 m
A Norman cathedral at the foot of a 270-meter rock on the Tyrrhenian coast, founded in 1131.
Geraci Siculo
Province: Palermo · 1,077 m
A Madonie ridge village at 1,077 meters, capital of the Ventimiglia marquisate from 1258 and the first marquisate granted in Sicily.
Petralia Soprana
Province: Palermo · 1,147 m
The highest village in the Madonie at 1,147 meters, RAI Borgo dei Borghi 2018 winner, sitting above 80 kilometers of salt tunnels.
Petralia Sottana
Province: Palermo · 1,000 m
A Madonie village at 1,000 meters, a Bandiera Arancione town, and the headquarters of the Parco delle Madonie.
Troina
Province: Enna · 1,121 m
At 1,121 meters on the Nebrodi ridge, the first capital and first bishopric the Normans set up in Sicily after taking it from the Arabs.
Cammarata
Province: Agrigento · 700 m
A Sicani town at 700 meters on the northeast slope of the peak that gives the comune its name and shape.
Castelbuono
Province: Palermo · 423 m
A Madonie town at 423 meters around the Ventimiglia castle, where manna is still tapped from ash trees and Fiasconaro bakes the panettone.
Polizzi Generosa
Province: Palermo · 917 m
A Madonie town at 917 meters, hazelnut country and the birthplace of Domenico Dolce.
Sant'Alfio
Province: Catania · 537 m
An Etna village at 537 meters where the world's largest and oldest chestnut tree has been measured at over 57 meters in girth.
Taormina
Province: Messina · 204 m
A terrace on Monte Tauro above the Ionian, with Etna on the southern horizon.
San Marco d'Alunzio
Province: Messina · 540 m
A hilltop borgo at 540 meters in pink Aluntina marble, founded by the Greeks and later Robert Guiscard's first Sicilian base.
Giarre
Province: Catania · 81 m
An Etna town that split from Mascali in 1815 and built a neoclassical duomo, with two bell towers framing the volcano behind it.
Randazzo
Province: Catania · 750 m
A medieval town in black lava stone at 750 meters on Etna's north foot, with three quarter churches for Latins, Greeks and Lombards.
From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns
Pieve Tesino
Province: Trento
A plateau village in eastern Trentino, birthplace of Alcide De Gasperi, shaped by centuries of families who left to trade prints across Europe.
Putignano
Province: Bari
Putignano has run its carnival continuously since 1394, the longest unbroken run in Europe, staged in a Murgia town with a karst cave threaded beneath its own centro storico.
Serrastretta
Province: Catanzaro
The chair town of the Reventino massif, founded in 1383 in a narrow gorge between two mountain ranges, still weaving straw seats by hand.
Gerace
Province: Reggio Calabria
A 470-meter conglomerate rock above the Locride, holding Calabria's largest cathedral.
Ugento
Province: Lecce
A Messapian-Roman town five kilometers from the Ionian, where a Baroque castle sits on the walls of the ancient city of Ozan.