Day 4 - Castelbuono and Cefalu'

Our Fiat Cinquecento

We left Palermo in our little red Fiat Cinquecento (i.e., 500) heading east along the Tyrrhenian Sea past Cefalu' and then turning south, up into the Madonie Mountains, to visit the medieval town of Castelbuono. The drive, which took about 90 minutes, goes through such an uneven part of land that you are basically either in a tunnel or on a bridge for most of the way. One funny thing we noticed is that the Italians name each bridge and tunnel, no matter how small. Not sure why.

Town of Castelbuono (viewed from the castle)

There is an actual castle in Castelbuono (Good Castle) which was built by the wealthy Count Ventimiglia in 1316, after the Ventimiglia family moved from the north of Italy to Sicily for the better weather. The most important thing they brought with them was the holy relic of the skull of Saint Anne, who was the mother of Mary. Saint Anne is now the patron saint of Castelbuono and three times a year the skull is processed around the town. Sicily is notorious for being a land of mysterious religious customs and celebrations that I find fascinating.

Below the castle is a small section of town dating back to the middle ages.

Chapel in the Castle

The most interesting feature of the castle is the chapel which was built in 1636 and features many marble cherubs and supposedly tells the history of the Ventimiglia family. It is beautiful but it certainly fails in getting the history across. I'm left wondering why there were so many cherubs. Even Wikipedia doesn't explain it. By the way, the American actor Milo Ventimiglia is a descendent of the family.

After Castelbuono, we drove to Cefalu' where we spent the night. Cefalu' is a town of Greek origin and was a major fishing village for many hundreds of years and now has become a major tourist center. The star attraction in town is the Duomo of Cefalu' which was started by King Roger II (see earlier posts) in 1131 when he landed there after being saved from a storm at sea.

Duomo at Cefalu'

The town of Cefalu' is certainly cute, has a great beach, numerous restaurants and shops, but maybe too many tourists to be comfortable in. As you can see in the photo, there was a mix of rain drops and bright sunshine when we were there.

The patron saint is San Salvatore and it is the site of a massive religious celebration in his honor in August.

Mosaic of Jesus

Similar to the interior of the cathedral in Palermo, this church is also done in beautiful Byzantine gold colored mosaic tiles, dominated by a huge image of Jesus overlooking the worshipers.

Before we left town, we stopped to buy supplies for dinner. Our room has a terrace overlooking the sea and we like to "eat in" when we have that kind of option. With the help of the store clerk, we bought 3 types of cheese, bread, a bottle of wine from the local Abbey in Castelbuono and some chocolate to add to the "black swine salumi" which we bought in Castelbuono for our dinner. We stayed out until it got dark and the rain started.