Sicilian Mafia & Antimafia Strategies
Targeted primarly to students of Criminology, Law, Sociology, the tour focuses the Mafia phenomenon in Sicily and describe it in its complexity. The goal is to show the most effective strategies, used by the the State and by the Civil Society, to fight against Cosa Nostra and to prevent its proliferation.
- 7 days
6 nights - minimum 20
- 18+ years
Historians, prosecutors, members of the law enforcement and of the institutions, journalists, activists of anti-mafia associations, relatives of Mafia's victims: all these experts involved in the struggle against organized crime will talk about their own experience.
The tour retraces the story of the mafia by exploring the socio-cultural context in which it was born and developed and by visiting the symbolic places connected to the successes of the Anti-mafia Movement.
Itinerary
Arrival. Introduction to Palermo and Sicily
(transportations: private bus) Welcome at the airport and transfer to Palermo. Check-in at hotel. Visit of the Duomo of Monreale and panoramic tour of Palermo. Included dinner.
History of the mafia. Women and the mafia
(transportation: public) Continental breakfast. Lecture on the history of the Mafia and of the Anti-mafia movement by the historian Umberto Santino at the “Centro Siciliano di Documentazione Peppino Impastato”. In-depth analysis on the subject “Women and the mafia” by Dr. Anna Puglisi. Included lunch. Free time in the afternoon. Dinner on own.
Corleone: from the mafia of the feud to the falling of the Corleonesi
(transportation: private bus) Continental breakfast. Bus transfer to Corleone. Visit to the “Bottega/Laboratorio dei Sapori e dei Saperi”: a history of the mafia with images, through the paintings of Gaetano Porcasi.. Panoramic walk. Visit to CIDMA (Centro Internazionale di Documentazione sulle Mafie e sul Movimento Antimafia – International Documentation Center on the Mafie and the Anti-mafia Movement). Lunch in agriturismo “Terre di Corleone”, managed by a cooperative partnered with Libera: focus on the confiscation of the assets from the Mafia and their social re-use. Break in Ficuzza, small hamlet dominated by the Royal palace of Ferdinando di Borbone. Back to Palermo and dinner on own.
The commitment of the State: Law enforcement and Magistrature
(transportation: private bus) Continental breakfast. Meet a representative of the Italian Police and seminar about the antimafia strategies. Lunch on own. Visit of the Courthouse of Palermo with Gery Ferrara, prosecutror. Back to hotel and overnight stay.
Information against the Mafia: Peppino Impastato
(transportation: private bus) Continental breakfast. Free time in the morning. Transfer to Cinisi: visit of the “Casa della Memoria" dedicated to Peppino Impastato, the young activist murdered by the Mafia in 1978. Included dinner in pizza place (location of the movie “One hundred steps” by Marco Tullio Giordana). Back to hotel and overnight stay.
Pizzo and Addiopizzo
(public transportation) Continental breakfast. Lecture on the protection money (pizzo) and on the Addiopizzo's ethical consumerism campaign. “Palermo No Mafia” tour: discovering the symbolic places of the anti-mafia in the old town centre of Palermo. Lunch at the restaurant “Antica Focacceria San Francesco”. Walk in Piazza Marina, Piazza Magione and the Foro Italico. Visit to the headquarter of the Comitato Addiopizzo. Dinner (not included). Farewell party.
Falcone and Borsellino and the reaction to the massacre
(transportation: private bus) Continental breakfast and check-out. Brief stop at the “Albero Falcone”, symbol of the reaction of the people’s of Palermo against the mafia. Brief stop in via D’Amelio, place where the judge Paolo Borsellino was killed on the 19th of July 1992. Transfer to Capaci, set of the massacre of the 23rd of May 1992, in which the prosecutor Giovanni Falcone lost his life. Meret a witness. Lunch (not included). Transfer to the airport.
This tour goes to:
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Palermo
It is impossible to describe the Sicilian capital without noting its contrasts: elegance and decadence, light and shadow, rich and poor, metropolitan and provincial, joy and sorrow, perfumes and stenches, Mafia and Anti-Mafia. A city which captivates, stupefies, and sometimes shocks visitors; it certainly isn’t an experience one forgets. -
Capaci
Capaci is one of the places that represent instantaneously both the brutal mafia’s violence and the Sicilians’ rebellion against the oppression exercised by Cosa Nostra. On the 23rd of May of 1992 the anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three men of their security detail were killed. -
Corleone
Thousands of people in the world have heard about Corleone: mainly because of the mafia, and also because of Hollywood. But only a few of them have seen it with their own eyes. And who did has been fascinated by it. -
Cinisi
The city in which Peppino Impastato, young activist who rebelled against the mafia inside and outside his home, lived, and where he was killed because of his rebellion in 1978. -
Monreale
Set on the hills that dominate the Conca D’oro, the valley that surrounds Palermo, famous for its Arabic-Norman Cathedral, Monreale is at the center of an agricultural territory that today takes back and makes productive the lands that used to belong to the mafia bosses. -
Ficuzza
Fully immerged in in the woods appears the town of Ficuzza, with a few dozens of inhabitants and a few, small houses wrapped around the majestic “Real Casina di Caccia”, a realm that used to belong to the Borbone.
During this tour you could meet:
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Gery Ferrara
Dr Ferrara is a State anti-mafia prosecutor who has overseen many mafia cases, and more recently lots of human trafficking/smuggling cases. He also worked in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. He participate as speaker in meetings with foreign students, boith in person and via webinars. -
Fabio Conticello
Owner of the famous Palermitano restaurant Antica Foccaceria San Francesco, Fabio decided along with his brother Vincenzo to report all extortionate demands to the police. This was a courageous act which made them a symbol of the rebellion against the mafia, a choice which has since been imitated by other proprietors. -
Don Cosimo Scordato
Anti-mafia priest who is fully committed on the territory, he has founded in 1985 the “Centro Sociale San Saverio” in the neighborhood called Albergheria in Palermo, becoming the promoter of a series of grassroots initiatives: housing, employment, redevelopment, and aid to children and seniors. -
Umberto Santino
Founder of the “Centro siciliano di documentazione Giuseppe Impastato” of Palermo, he is one of the main scholars of the mafia phenomenon, author of a numerous literary essays, as well as one of the most rigorous and steadfast anti-mafia militant activist. He is also the promoter of the 'No Mafia Memorial. -
Giovanni Impastato
Younger brother of Peppino Impastato, the activist killed by the mafia in 1978, is among the founders of the “Casa Memoria Felicia e Peppino Impastato”. His heart-felt and sincere voice tells the conflict of whom experienced both the mafia and the anti-mafia inside his own home, together with the story of the following battle fought in the name of the truth. -
Anna Puglisi
Cofounder with her husband Umberto Santino of the “Centro siciliano di documentazione Giuseppe Impastato”, she is the author of numerous biographies of Sicilian women, victims of the mafia or anti-mafia militant activists. She has founded in 1984 the Association of Sicilian women fighting against the mafia. -
Libera activists
The activists of the association created by Don Ciotti promote the social re-utilization of the goods seized from the mafia. Some of them manage first-hand agricultural companies and agritourisms built on lands that used to belong to the most powerful exponents of the mafia. -
Antonio Vassallo
Photographer of Capaci, he was there when, on the 23rd of May 1992 the mafia blew up the interstate where Giovanni Falcone was traveling, killing him together with his wife and the men of his security detail. He took a few pictures right after the massacre, providing them to the investigators.