The village is slipping: it is built on clay hills, and the water carries them down little by little. It stood at 1,080 metres, today it is at 1,027 — fifty-three metres lost along the way, and in March 1996 a landslide took away part of the main road as well.
From up here you look at the northern face of Etna, the side the lava rarely reaches, and at night the sky is as dark as anywhere in Sicily: people come to photograph the stars. The village dates from 1628, a fief of the Pagano family; the church, the only one there is, was enlarged in 1776 by the Alliata princes, and keeps the font with their arms. There are 1,067 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma · Pitone messinese
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Next up: Saint Anthony the Abbot, patron of a town named after its founders, Sunday 5 September
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 51 km away
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📅 Every year, on the first Sunday of September
Santa Domenica Vittoria celebrates Saint Anthony the Abbot on the first Sunday of September; the town's very name recalls its founders, Domenico Alliata, prince of Villafranca, and Vittoria di Giovanni, princess of Ucria.
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 Santa Domenica Vittoria, but an easy day trip away.
