Patron saint festival In 50 days
Saint Barbara, patron of Norma
📅 Every year, on 4 December
Norma celebrates Saint Barbara on 4 December.
Norma is the second life of Norba. The Roman colony was founded in 492 BC on the Lepini mountains, fortified to control the plain below; in the civil war it took Marius's side, and in 81 BC Sulla's troops laid siege to it. Rather than be taken and sold into slavery, the inhabitants set fire to the city and killed themselves. The site stayed empty for centuries: only around the year one thousand did people come back to settle nearby, and that is the village of today, standing on the edge of a sheer rock face above the Pontine plain.
What Norma is doing now is trying to save its dialect. Normiciano, of the Lepini group, is by now spoken by the oldest inhabitants, and the village has answered with concrete things: a dialect poetry competition, a Normiciano-Italian dictionary, and a «street of dialect», where the popular sayings are written on signs along the way. Below the village the Ninfina road leads to the gardens of Ninfa; the Via Francigena crosses the old centre; and from 1892 to 1957 the Velletri-Terracina railway had a station here called Norma-Ninfa.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Norma 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Norma
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Norma, but an easy day trip away.
Teatro Antico di Taormina 📍 Taormina · 6.0 km Sicily's second-largest ancient theatre, with Etna framed in the gap of the Roman stage wall. duomo di Taormina 📍 Taormina · 5.2 km Taormina's medieval cathedral of Saint Nicholas blends Sicilian Romanesque-Gothic style with fortress battlements. Casa Cuseni 📍 Taormina · 5.0 km Historic Taormina villa featuring Arts and Crafts interiors, Grand Tour watercolors, and historic gardens. Castello di Monte Tauro 📍 Taormina · 5.3 km A medieval fortress set 400 meters above sea level on the ancient lower acropolis of Taormina. Museo archeologico di Taormina 📍 Taormina · 5.2 km Three rooms in the Badia Vecchia tower: Taormina's own digs, from the Greeks to Rome. Isola Bella 📍 Taormina · 6.7 km A tidal island in Taormina known for its exotic flora and mid-century architecture camouflaged among the rocks.