Page 332 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

FROM TOP CASTELLO NELSON; PISTACHIOS, BRONTE

Bronte

A small, unassuming town with a noble past, BRONTE lies half an hour’s drive

southwest of Randazzo along the SS284. It was founded by Charles V in 1535, and
many echoes of its original layout survive, particularly in the numerous battlemented
campanili that top its ageing churches. The town gave its name both to the dukedom
bestowed upon Nelson and to Yorkshire’s trio of novelists, the Brontë sisters, whose
father, the Rev Patrick Prunty, harboured such an obsession for Nelson that he changed
his name to Brontë (and added an umlaut). Otherwise, Bronte’s sole claim to fame
these days is as the centre of Italy’s pistachio production: the plantations around town

account for 85 percent of the country’s output, but are only harvested in the early