The Most Beautiful Beaches in Sicily by Our Friends at Charming Sicily

Sicily has majestic beaches. Below is a list to help you decide where to go.

1 Mondello (Palermo)
2 Cefalù
3 Spiaggia di Castel di Tusa
4 San Gregorio Ca D.Orlando
5 Capo Calavà (Gioiosa Marea)
6 Spiaggia di Pollara (Salina)
7 Spiaggia Calcara (Panarea)
8 Spiaggia Acquacalda (Lipari)
9 Spiaggia Bianca (Lipari)
10 Spiaggia Canneto (Lipari)

Best beaches in Sicily: Top 50 beautiful Sicilian Beaches by Charming Sicily

Good or Bad News? Foreign Investors Are Buying Out Sicily on the Cheap

Agence France-Presse reports that foreign buyers are swooping on deserted villages in Sicily to snap up homes for as little as 10,000 euros ($13,000), propping up a property market in free-fall as Italy suffers its longest-ever recession.

“When you go to the pizzeria now, you often meet more foreigners than Sicilians,” said Salvatore Sansemi, mayor of Cianciana, near the southern city of Agrigento.

Half the population of the village — set against the stunning backdrop of the Sicani mountains and close to the sea — has emigrated to Canada, France or Germany in recent years, leaving only around 3,500 inhabitants.

“We have just signed off on 140 sales to British, French, Norwegians and Poles, as well as a few Canadians and Chinese,” Sansemi told AFP.

One of the latest buyers in the village is Ray Winstone, a British actor and producer who bought an old farmhouse for 50,000 euros ($65,000) and is entirely redoing it to the tune of 1.3 million euros.

“Prices are very low. A house needing repairs can cost from 10,000 to 30,000 euros. An apartment or a renovated house from 60,000 to 80,000,” he said.

Cianciana already has around 800 British home owners and the number is growing.

Raffaele Impallari, a local tourism board official, said: “Thanks to our hospitality, here they have the feeling of being at home.

“Maybe they feel even better since the weather is always good and we are only 20 minutes from the seaside,” he joked.

Read more at http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/21/foreign-investors-snap-up-cheap-homes-in-deserted-sicily-villages/

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Sicilian Students Promote the Mediterranean Diet

May 17, 2013 10:00 am

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May 19, 2013 7:00 pm

The Mediterranean diet – declared by UNESCO “Intangible Cultural Heritage” in 2010, is the protagonist of a cultural project created by some Sicilian students. The Rassegna Vino & Olio (Wine & Oil Festival) organized by the students of the P. Mattarella-D. Dolci Institute in Alcamo has the purpose of promoting the Sicilian culinary tradition.

Students, public institutions, wine and oil producers are all working together to promote local products and sustain economic development. Three days of exhibitions, music, sport and culture starting on Friday, May 17 at 10:00 AM with the conference - The typicality of the Sicilian territory and the Mediterranean Diet - at the Marconi Congress Center (free entrance). Friday and Saturday at 6:00 PM (and Sunday starting at 10:00 AM) everyone is invited to the trade show in Alcamo’s  gorgeous Piazza Ciullo, the heart of the town’s historic center. Local producers offer tastings of traditional food, olive oils and wines.

“The Mediterranean diet” says Sebastiano Bonventre, mayor of Alcamo “must not simply be considered nutrition, but a lifestyle”. It is a combination of habits, knowledge and traditions that go from the countryside to the table.

Sicilian food follows the Mediterranean diet, which is characterized  by olive oil as the dominant fat source and a high to moderate  consumption of fruit and vegetables, grains, legumes and fish in combination with small amounts of meat and – of course – wine with meals. Studies confirm the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet and let’s not forget that the Mediterranean way of eating is tasty, flavorful and enjoyable!

Post and photos by Maria Lina Bommarito

For information, email rosadeventiwinefoodtour@gmail.com

Address: Municipio Centro Congressi Maroni
Corso Sei Aprile, 119
91011, Alcamo (TP)

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The Most Beautiful Beach in the World is in Sicily

“Tripadvisor Travelers Choice Beaches Awards 2013” proclaims the Island of Lampedusa’s “Spiaggia dei Conigli” as the most beautiful beach in the world.

Of the 276 beaches identified among millions of Tripadvisor user reviews, the “Rabbit Beach” on the Mediterranean coastline of Lampedusa, received the most enthusiastic mentions. The beach emerged as favorite for its crystal clear waters, white sandy beaches and stupendous views that extend to the blue  Sicilian sea.

Lampedusa the largest of Sicily’s Pelagie Islands located on the southernmost point of Italy is a favorite tourist destination for its ideal geographic location and stunning geological beauty.

The best period to visit is from May through September.  A ferry service links the island with Porto Empedocle near Agrigento, Sicily. There are year-round flights from the Lampedusa Airport to Palermo and Catania and other seasonal links with the Italian mainland.

By Maria Lina Bommarito

More at http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g262047-d568915-Reviews-Rabbit_Beach-Lampedusa_Islands_of_Sicily_Sicily.html

Disaster Strikes the Aeolian Islands in Sicily

From AGI:

(AGI) Catania – The head of the Messina office of the Disaster Relief Agency has completed his on-the-spot inspection in Lipari. The inspection was aimed at verifying the damaged caused by the violent downpour that hit the island yesterday and planning the measures to be taken. It was announced in a statement by the office of the president of region Sicily. It was agreed with municipal authorities that experts and geologists of the Disaster Relief Agency will be deployed to the island tomorrow to assess the situation on the hill slopes where debris flows were reported. Once the assessment is complete, all necessary measures will be taken. The regional branch of the Disaster Relief Agency told the mayor of Lipari that they are ready to send teams, vehicles and equipment to the island for clean-up operations, which at this stage are being carried out using vehicles and equipment made available by the local authorities. . .

More at http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/elenco-notizie/201209162128-cro-ren1056-disaster_agency_to_deploy_vehicles_equipment_to_lipari

Addiopizzo Travel to repaint the faded NO MAFIA Sign

AddiopizzoTravel.it

Addiopizzo Travel will commemorate the assassination of Giovanni Falcone by repainting the sign that written after the days when the Palermitan judge was killed with his wife and bodyguards on May 22, 1993.

Addiopizzo Travel provides ethical tours of Sicily. We do this by taking tourists to those businesses who have said “no” to the Mafia’s requests for protection money. The name given to this protection money is ‘Pizzo’, join us and you will travel “mafia-free” and ‘pizzo-free’! From AddioPizzoTravel.it

Giovanni Falcone (18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was a Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo,Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the famous Maxi Trial, he was killed by the Corleonesi Mafia in May 1992, on the motorway near the town of Capaci. From Wikipedia.com

Italian politician wants to sell Sicily to the US

Mario Borghezio, an Italian politician from the Northern League, is not new to controversy and discriminatory offenses. Now that the Northern League is in deep troubles because of scandals that touch the top leaders of his party and imply even business relations between the party and the ‘Ndrangheta, he  goes off even louder saying that the Italian regions of Sicily and Campania should be sold to the US to free Italy from the Mafia and reduce the Italian debt.

For Borghezio, it is always Roma ladrona‘s fault even when the ladri is them… It is never the fault of the petty Italian ruling class that has not been capable to put together a country smaller than Texas after 150 years. Listen here for yourself (unfortunately, Italian ONLY).

 

Sicily in the news

We have been away for a while. In the meantime, Sicily has not been waiting for us to be in the news.  Here is a little catching up with what has happened in the past weeks.

Beginning April 21, Getty Villa guests will be able to view items from the ancient city of Morgantina.

Emanuele Viscuso has brought a slice of Italy to Miami. The founder of the Sicilian International Film Festival, now under way through April 17, visited in 2000 and decided to put down roots.

Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark shot a final round 69 to win the Sicilian Open by 1 shot, holding off England’s Chris Wood who equaled the course record with an 8-under 64 on Sunday April 15.

A 4.3 magnitude earthquake has struck in the sea off Italy’s Sicily, sending residents into the streets but with no immediate reports of victims or injuries, officials said on April 13.

Mount Etna erupts not far from Zafferana Etnea village on April 13.

One of Sicily’s most ambitious winemakers, Planeta, has taken on a new challenge by tackling its French competitors head on with its first Brut Classic to be released this year. April 5

Fountains of lava and ash spew out of Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, in the early morning of April 1 on the Italian island of Sicily.

A city clerk in Palermo is being investigated over alleged irregularities in the issuing of voting card duplicates. March 30

In one of the most extraordinary discoveries in recent years, an opera that experts say is the long-lost first work by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1834) was found during an archeological dig in Sicily.

The Sicilian mafia pockets more than a third of all the money allocated by the central government in Rome for public services on the island, according to a study to be presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2012 annual conference. March 23

Source: GoogleNews
Photo: Castellammare del Golfo (TP) by Joe Zarba

 

Azienda Agricola Biologica Titone in Sicily Is Awarded with the Best Olive Oil in Italy

Flos is the Latin word for “the best” and Flos Olei has as its objective the profiling of the world’s best olive oils and their producers. Marco Oreggia, a Rome-based journalist and expert in wine and olive oil, is its publisher, and he jointly edits it with Laura Marinelli. Oreggia was behind another guide to olive oils, which was called L’Extravergine, but the current guide has supplanted it. This is the third year for Flos Olei and Flos Olei 2012 will be launched in Rome in late November. The guide is in both Italian and English and costs €30.

The producers listed in the guide are also competitors for some 20 prizes, and the results of the competition have already been announced. The Olive Oil Mill of the Year award went to the Italian producer, Azienda Agraria Viola, an Umbrian family business that consistently produces award-winning results. The Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil of the Year prize went to the Azienda Agricola Biologica Titone in Sicily, for their Titone, a DOP Valli Trapanesi Biologico. Both of these are organic producers, like many in the top 20 list.

Source: The Olive Oil Times

Paolo Pizzo from Catania Wins Gold Medal in Fencing

We always talk about soccer when we post sport news, but this time we are proud to write about fencing. Yes, fencing. Catania is hosting The World Fencing Champions from October 8-16, 2011.

On Wednesday October 12, Paolo Pizzo was the surprise winner of the epee title as host Italy continued to dominate the fencing world championships. Matteo Tagliariol was the favorite for the title, but the Olympic champion was upset by eventual semifinalist Park Kyoung-doo of South Korea in the opening round.

http://youtu.be/-zqiU-lunQc

Pizzo, competing in his hometown of Catania, edged Bas Verwijlen of the Netherlands 15-13 in the final for his first major medal, giving Italy its third gold of the championship after Valentina Vezzali and Aldo Montano won Tuesday’s opening events.

Source: The Mainichi Daily News

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