«Li Fusi» is a trade: spindles for spinning were made here, and in 1812 the name served to tell this town apart from the other Alcara, which then became Lercara Friddi. Before that it was Alcara Valdemone, and earlier still, for the Arabs, Al-qarah: the high place.
The first document that names it is a Greek diploma of count Roger, from 1096: «I also gave the castle of Alcara, near Demenna». The town stands at 398 metres in the Nebrodi, on the right bank of the Rosmarino, under limestone walls, with Monte Soro behind. On 17 May 1860, while waiting for Garibaldi's men, the labourers rose against the local gentry: it ended in blood, and the repression was harsh. There are 2,072 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Nicholas Politi and the pagan rite of the Muzzuni, Monday 3 May
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 69 km away
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📅 Every year, on 3 May and 17 August
Alcara li Fusi celebrates Saint Nicholas Politi on 3 May and 17 August; but the town's most heartfelt and studied tradition is «U Muzzuni», on 24 June, a rite that scholars trace back to the cult of the goddess Demeter and the summer solstice rather than to the feast of Saint John the Baptist.
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 →A thin sheet of dough folded into a half-moon and fried, with escarole, tuma cheese, anchovies and black pepper inside: Messina’s street food, to eat hot straight from the rosticceria.
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 Alcara li Fusi, but an easy day trip away.
