Page 411 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

you’ve filled your water bottle, it’s time to move on, unless you fancy stocking up on

the lentils for which the town is famous.

Nicosia

Sitting under looming crags, NICOSIA is a medieval mass of cracked palazzi topped

by the remains of a Norman castle. Traffic all funnels up to the chatter-filled Piazza
Garibaldi, the site of Nicosia’s lovely old cathedral, San Nicola, a stately
construction with a fourteenth-century facade and belltower, and a handsome sculpted
Gothic portal. To the side of the cathedral (left side, as you face the church), Via
Francesco Salamone rises steeply to the former Saracen district of the town, a jumble
of streets occupying one of the four hills on which Nicosia is built.

Santa Maria Maggiore
Via Francesco Salamone

Founded in 1267 but rebuilt after an eighteenth-century landslide, Santa Maria
Maggiore has the bells from its campanile piled up outside – they fell down after

another earthquake and the sound of them is now electrically reproduced. Inside, amid
“No Spitting” notices, you’ll find an impressive marble polyptych by Antonello
Gagini and a throne used by Charles V when he passed through here in 1535, on the
way back from his Tunisian crusade. The views from outside encompass the town’s
other three promontories, on the highest of which sits the ruined castle.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: NICOSIA

By bus Buses drop you a few minutes’ walk below Piazza Garibaldi.

Destinations Catania (5 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 2hr); Enna (3 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr
30min); Gangi (4–7 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 40min); Leonforte (4–5 daily Mon–
Sat, 1 daily Sun; 40min); Palermo (4 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 3hr 10min); Petralia
Soprana (4–5 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 10min); Petralia Sottana (4–5 daily

Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 20min); Polizzi Generosa (2 daily; 2hr); Sperlinga (4–7
daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 15min).

By car You might be able to park near the square for a short while, but it’s better to
use one of the signposted parking areas as you drive into the centre.

ACCOMMODATION

Baglio San Pietro Contrada San Pietro 0935 640 529 or 335 876 7396,
bagliosanpietro.com. Some 1km west of Nicosia and signposted off the Sperlinga
road, this is a restored farm estate originally dating from the seventeenth century. The
comfortable rooms here make a good base for the surroundings, as the farm has its