Alì moved twice before it found a place it liked. The first settlement was at Piano Mollerino, near the sea, and was abandoned perhaps because of pirate raids; the second, on top of Monte Scuderi, was too exposed to wind and cold; the third, on the slopes of Monte Sant'Elena, is the one there today.
The story comes from a manuscript of 1754 by fra' Serafino d'Alì, a local Capuchin, according to whom the town was founded in 638 BC by Greek colonists from Elis, in the Peloponnese: they called it Elis, after the motherland. It sits at 450 metres, and someone has called it a hanging veranda over the Ionian. There are 823 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Agatha, patron saint honoured in the cathedral built in the 16th century, Friday 5 February
Nearest airport: Reggio Calabria, 21 km away
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📅 Every year, on 5 February
Alì celebrates Saint Agatha on 5 February, in the cathedral dedicated to her, built in 1565; the town's old mother church, now the church of the Immaculate, was renamed Sant'Agata la Vetere after the new cathedral was built.
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 Alì, but an easy day trip away.
