In the old apothecary's shop, on wooden shelves, there still stand two hundred and thirty-eight majolica jars from Urbino, made in the Patanazzi workshop: on one amphora you can read the signature, «M. Antonio Patanazi Urbini 1580». In 1628 the set was given to the confraternity that owned the pharmacy.
The other thing not seen elsewhere is the festa del convito: it is held every ten years, on the first Sunday of August, and for Saint Nicholas a calf is blessed, sacrificed and eaten by everyone together. Above the town stands the castle, which appears in the arms too, with its battlements. There are 1,149 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Nicholas of Bari, patron of a calf sacrificed every ten years, Sunday 6 December
Nearest airport: Reggio Calabria, 27 km away
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📅 Every year, on 6 December
Roccavaldina celebrates Saint Nicholas of Bari on 6 December; every ten years the town holds the special «feast of the banquet», with the blessing, sacrifice and feasting of a calf, while the town preserves an extraordinary 16th-century pharmacy with ceramic jars from the Urbino workshop of the Patanazzi.
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 Roccavaldina, but an easy day trip away.
