Polizzi Generosa
Outside and inside the cave houses of Sperlinga.
Climb Every Mountain
When we left Piazza Armerina we headed deeper and higher into the mountains. Last year I read a book about Sicilian mountain villages called The Stone Boudoir. From that book I had heard about two villages that interested me in particular: Sperlinga and Polizzi Generosa. Sperlinga is a tiny village of about 700 people. Evidence establishes the town well before 1300 BC as it was occupied from at least that date. It has a medieval castle perched at the top of its mountain. That alone doesn't make Sperlinga special. What does make it special is the network of caves and tunnels that have been dug out of the sandstone there. And until about a decade ago, all the caves were inhabited. Today, all but two are empty.
We pulled into the village and stopped for lunch at a small bar overlooking the mountains and the valley below. Like so many places we have seen, the view was stunning. In the bar they had a collection of post cards from all over Europe. We had a few post cards of Duncan with us so I gave one to the owner of the shop. He was very happy to get it, put it up with the others and gave us two post cards of Sperlinga, including one of the cave houses. We asked him where we could find the houses and he conscripted a teenage boy named Salvatore to take us on a tour of the houses. We followed him through the town and up a steep hill. At first we could see the cave houses from a distance but then we followed him along a narrow stone path that hung on the edge of a cliff. We saw a number of houses that were padlocked. When we asked why they were no longer inhabited, he said that people had died or moved away and no one had moved into them even though they were still owned by the families. We continued on down and found some that were open and had been left with furniture – beds, stone pizza ovens with chimneys through the sandstone roofs, chairs, religious pictures. Some had weaving looms and one had even been a schoolroom at one time. It was wonderful to have the chance to see inside these homes, even if they are no longer inhabited.
We drove on to Polizzi Generosa. The road to Polizzi Generosa is hard for us from Canada to picture. Picture (if you have driven it) the Hope-Princeton Highway. Decrease the width of the road by a third. Add a hairpin turn every 200 metres or so for more than 10 miles and then picture being tailgated and passed on the hairpin turns. That was the drive to Polizzi Generosa. Fortunately the people here are extremely friendly and as we walk down the streets people greet us with a buon giorno or buona sera. It is also a lovely, picturesque town with the requisite stunning views. The roads here, however are narrow and cobbled and steep. We didn't have a couch booked for three nights so we found a pensione that is owned by a very young guy. He is a real go getter. At 22 he works full time in an engineers' office and runs this pensione in his 'spare' time. It is a very nice little pensione with 4 rooms and we were glad to find it.
When we left Piazza Armerina we headed deeper and higher into the mountains. Last year I read a book about Sicilian mountain villages called The Stone Boudoir. From that book I had heard about two villages that interested me in particular: Sperlinga and Polizzi Generosa. Sperlinga is a tiny village of about 700 people. Evidence establishes the town well before 1300 BC as it was occupied from at least that date. It has a medieval castle perched at the top of its mountain. That alone doesn't make Sperlinga special. What does make it special is the network of caves and tunnels that have been dug out of the sandstone there. And until about a decade ago, all the caves were inhabited. Today, all but two are empty.
We pulled into the village and stopped for lunch at a small bar overlooking the mountains and the valley below. Like so many places we have seen, the view was stunning. In the bar they had a collection of post cards from all over Europe. We had a few post cards of Duncan with us so I gave one to the owner of the shop. He was very happy to get it, put it up with the others and gave us two post cards of Sperlinga, including one of the cave houses. We asked him where we could find the houses and he conscripted a teenage boy named Salvatore to take us on a tour of the houses. We followed him through the town and up a steep hill. At first we could see the cave houses from a distance but then we followed him along a narrow stone path that hung on the edge of a cliff. We saw a number of houses that were padlocked. When we asked why they were no longer inhabited, he said that people had died or moved away and no one had moved into them even though they were still owned by the families. We continued on down and found some that were open and had been left with furniture – beds, stone pizza ovens with chimneys through the sandstone roofs, chairs, religious pictures. Some had weaving looms and one had even been a schoolroom at one time. It was wonderful to have the chance to see inside these homes, even if they are no longer inhabited.
We drove on to Polizzi Generosa. The road to Polizzi Generosa is hard for us from Canada to picture. Picture (if you have driven it) the Hope-Princeton Highway. Decrease the width of the road by a third. Add a hairpin turn every 200 metres or so for more than 10 miles and then picture being tailgated and passed on the hairpin turns. That was the drive to Polizzi Generosa. Fortunately the people here are extremely friendly and as we walk down the streets people greet us with a buon giorno or buona sera. It is also a lovely, picturesque town with the requisite stunning views. The roads here, however are narrow and cobbled and steep. We didn't have a couch booked for three nights so we found a pensione that is owned by a very young guy. He is a real go getter. At 22 he works full time in an engineers' office and runs this pensione in his 'spare' time. It is a very nice little pensione with 4 rooms and we were glad to find it.
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