Sicily: beyond the Godfather
What do you know about Sicily? What was it, what is it now? Who are the Sicilians? And what is the Mafia? A study trip targeted to foreign students, meant to propose our answers to these and many other questions. An eye-opening experience, as Sicily can be a key to interpret our present.
- 8 days
7 nights - minimum 20
- 18+ years
Highlights
- Learn about the Mafia and about the Anti-mafia Movement
- Immerse yourself into the old town centre of Palermo, full of charm and mystery
- Explore the allies of Corleone and see its spectacular canyons
- Enjoy the multicultural aspects of a land in the middle of the Mediterranean see
- Meet the enthusiastic activists who work on land confiscated from Mafia bosses
- Try the most authentic Sicilian desserts like cannolo
Itinerary
1° day
Arrival and introduction to Sicily
Welcome in airport and transfer to Palermo.
Check-in at Mafia-free hotel.
Presentation of Sicily and the tour.
Included dinner and overnight.
2° day
The Mafia and the Anti-Mafia movement
“Palermo NoMafia” Tour: a walk through the old town center to discover the symbolic places and most significant stories of nowadays struggle against the Mafia.
Included lunch in the famous Mafia-free restaurant “Antica Focacceria San Francesco”.
Visit of the headquarters of Comitato Addiopizzo in an apartment confiscated from the local Mafia boss.
Free time in the afternoon.
Back to hotel and overnight.
3° day
Corleone: the origins of the Mafia and the Movement of the peasants
Transfer to Corleone.
Guided tour in Corleone and panoramic walk.
Visit to “Bottega/Laboratorio dei Sapori e dei Saperi”: a pictorial history of the Mafia and the antimafia in Corleone
Included lunch at agriturismo “Terre di Corleone”, managed by the antimafia cooperative Libera. Focus on the confiscation of the Mafia assets and their social re-use.
Break in Ficuzza, the hamlet dominated by the royal palace of Ferdinando of Borbone.
Back to Palermo and dinner on own.
Overnight in hotel.
4° day
The Monreale area: mosaics, wine & cannoli
Monreale: visit to the UNESCO protected Cathedral.
Lunch in agriturismo "Masseria La Chiusa" with a "Cannoli" demonstration.
The Memorial of Portella della Ginestra: the Mafia before, during and after the Allied invasion of Sicily.
San Cipirello: wine-tasting and visit at the winery "Centopassi" managed by Libera.
Back to Palermo and dinner on own.
Overnight in hotel.
5° day
Falcone and Borsellino: the Anti-mafia martyrs
Meeting with an eyewitness of the massacre in Capaci, where the prosecutor Giovanni Falcone was murdered with a bomb in 1992.
Monte Pellegrino and the Sancuary of Santa Rosalia.
Mondello: included lunch in pizzo-free restaurant by the beach.
Via d'Amelio: where the prosecutor Paolo Borsellino was killed by the Mafia in 1992.
Back to Palermo and dinner on own.
Overnight in hotel.
6° day
Relaxing day in Cefalù
Transfer to Cefalù.
Walk in the picturesque seaside town and free time for beach and shopping.
Included lunch at Agriturimso Guarnera.
Siesta time by the swimming pool.
Back to hotel, included dinner and overnight.
7° day
The multi-ethnic Palermo: migration, racial integration and organized crime
The melting-pot community in the medieval Palermo: guided visit in the Royal Palace/Cappella Palatina, the church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti and on the roof of the Cathedral.
Lunch on own.
Migration and racial integration today: walk through the open-air market "Ballarò".
Meeting with experts on the phenomenon of migration in the multicultural restaurant "Moltivolti". Included dinner and farewell party.
Overnight in hotel.
8° day
Departure
Breakfast at hotel.
Transfer to 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. -
Portella della Ginestra
Here, on May 1 1947, the bandit Salvatore Giuliano and his gang shooted on a crowd gathered to celebrate the Labour Day. Eleven people were killed. The history on the new born Italian Republic started with such a massacre. -
Cefalù
A picturesque town on the coast between Palermo and Messina, whose silouhette in unmistakable thanks to the cliff of the "Rocca" and to the belltowers of the Arab-Norman Duomo. -
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. -
The 'Falcone Tree'
Placed in front of the house of the anti-mafia prosecutor, after the massacre of Capaci this tree became the symbol of the rebellion against the mafia and of the rebirth of the Sicilian people. -
Via d'Amelio
In this place the anti-mafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino and 5 members of his security detail died on the 19th of June 1992. The mafia blew off a bomb hidden in a car parked in the street while the prosecutor was going to visit his mother. -
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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Moltivolti
Moltivolti is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic project: a restaurant with a Sicilian-ethnic and popular cuisine and a co-working space dedicated to the third sector. -
Marilena Bagarella
She was born in Corleone and she still lives there. Manager of the "Laboratory of Legality", she mainly works on education and non-profit networks. -
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. -
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. -
Donatella Pucci
Owner of the Agriturismo Guarnera, Donatella has been actively involved in both the antimafia and the environmentalist cause with the determination of a lion.
Accomodation The package includes the following accomodation
Torreata Hotel & Residence
Hotel PalermoAutorizzazione n° 54/S9-TUR del 04/05/2016
