The name is Arabic, and nobody knows exactly what it means: perhaps al-qamah, muddy land or fertile land; perhaps the name of a Muslim commander to whom tradition attributes the founding, though the story has no documentary support; perhaps, more beautifully, an echo of ancient Camico, the legendary city of Cocalus king of the Sicani, which stood on Monte Bonifato — in which case manzil al-Qamah would mean the hamlet of Camico. The first certain mention is from 1154, when al-Idrisi put it on his map for King Roger: a fertile hamlet with a market. In 1185 the Andalusian traveller Ibn Jubayr stopped here and described it full of markets and mosques.
Then came the Normans and the Swabians, and under Frederick II the Muslim revolts ended with the deportation of the Islamic inhabitants of western Sicily to Lucera, in Apulia — the same fate that befell Mazara. «Rosa fresca aulentissima»: the contrasto of Cielo d'Alcamo is among the founding texts of Italian literature, and this town between Palermo and Trapani proudly claims its thirteenth-century author. The castle of the counts of Modica, fourteenth-century and four-square, presides over a centre of baroque churches. The white Alcamo DOC, from vineyards that cover the hills all the way to Segesta, is one of the historic Sicilian denominations. Above the town rises Monte Bonifato, with its woodland reserve and the sanctuary at the top: half an hour on foot and western Sicily explains itself.
Fontana araba · Palazzo De Ballis · museo d'arte sacra di Alcamo and 34 more
Arancina · Pasta alla Norma
24 places to stay · top rated: Sui tetti b&b 9.6 · U Zuccareddu 9.6
Next up: Feast of Maria Santissima dei Miracoli, Saturday 19 June
Nearest airport: Palermo Falcone-Borsellino, 26 km away
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📅 Every year, from 19 to 21 June
From 19 to 21 June Alcamo holds its greatest feast: it recalls the apparition of 21 June 1547 to two washerwomen, one blind and one deaf, who were healed.
Fontana araba The Arab fountain of Alcamo, still working after more than a thousand years. 
Palazzo De Ballis The fifteenth-century Gothic palazzo with the De Ballis tower, in Alcamo's historic centre. museo d'arte sacra di Alcamo The museum of Alcamo's mother church, with 150 works saved from the town's churches after the 1968 earthquake. Palazzo comunale di Alcamo Alcamo's nineteenth-century town hall on piazza Ciullo, with Gino Patti's engraved hall and the 1860 plaques. Museo degli strumenti musicali multietnici Fausto Cannone More than two hundred instruments from around the world collected by Fausto Cannone, in a former church in Alc Riserva naturale Bosco di Alcamo The pine wood on top of Monte Bonifato above Alcamo, with rare orchids, three trails and the ruins of Bùnifat. Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo cheese inside a golden crust. Round and feminine in Palermo, pointed and called arancino in Catania: the quarrel is serious.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Alcamo, but an easy day trip away.
