The name, legend says, comes from a scolding: the lady Angelina was watching for the fires that would announce the return of her dauphin of France, and her maid kept falling asleep. «Franca, vigghia!» — Franca, stay awake. In truth it comes from franc-ville, free town: no taxes were paid here.
The town lies in the middle of the Alcantara valley, below the ruins of the Norman castle, and along the river are the gurne, sixteen small lakes hollowed in the lava. On 20 June 1719 the plain was a battlefield between Spaniards and Austrians in the War of the Quadruple Alliance: eight thousand men were counted dead and wounded. There are 3,901 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Barbara and Saint Euplius, patrons of an almost-forgotten castle, Friday 4 December
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 49 km away
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📅 Every year, on 4 December and the last Sunday of August
Francavilla di Sicilia celebrates Saint Barbara on 4 December and Saint Euplius of Catania on the last Sunday of August; the town arose between the years 1000 and 1100 around its castle, now in ruins and never listed among Sicily's surveyed fortresses.
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 Francavilla di Sicilia, but an easy day trip away.
