In November 1928 Etna's lava came down as far as the town and took all of it: Mascali is the only Italian comune wiped out by an eruption in the twentieth century. Today's town was rebuilt in the thirties a little further off, with straight streets and a square in the middle.
Before that, Mascali was ancient: pope Gregory the Great names it in a letter of 593, and in 1154 the Arab geographer al-Idrisi, in the Book of Roger, describes it as a village on a hill, with fertile land and plenty of water. The name, from Byzantine Greek, is thought to mean wooded: Etna here was covered in trees. There are 13,792 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Saint Leonard, the patron who saved Mascali from the earthquake but not from the lava, Friday 6 November
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 34 km away
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📅 Every year, on 6 November
Mascali celebrates Saint Leonard of Noblac on 6 November; in 1693 the townspeople almost all survived the Val di Noto earthquake because they were in procession with his relics, but on that very date in 1928 Etna's lava buried the town.
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo inside a golden cone-shaped crust: in Catania it is masculine and pointed, and the quarrel with Palermo over the name is serious.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Mascali, but an easy day trip away.
