The 1693 earthquake flattened the Val di Noto and killed 541 people here. On 26 August, by notarial deed, the town's giurati bought a hill further south from Donna Pasqua: there they rebuilt the town, putting the churches back in the same positions they had held before.
Of the old town, Terravecchia, ruins remain below Monte Lauro. Further off, on Monte Casale, stood Casmene, the outpost Syracuse founded in 644 BC: thirty-eight parallel streets and three and a half kilometres of walls. And in the Calaforno park you go down into a hypogeum of thirty-five chambers dug one after another, first tombs and later dwellings. There are 3,143 residents.
Arancino · Pasta alla Norma
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Next up: Saint Bartholomew, patron «ab antiquo» already cited by the Vatican in 1308, Tuesday 24 August
Nearest airport: Catania Fontanarossa, 52 km away
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📅 Every year, from 16 to 24 August
Giarratana celebrates Saint Bartholomew the Apostle from 16 to 24 August: the festivities open to the sound of hand-rung bells and 24 cannon shots, with the statue litter facing a steep flight of nineteen steps amid the faithful's cry «Autu ù patronu».
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.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
