Cefalu is on the Northern Coast of Sicily with a good rep for beaches, a beautiful old town overlooking the sea and La Rocca, an imposing rocky crag containing Greek, Arab and Norman ruins, directly behind it. It’s a good bet for us to get over the blues we experienced in Marsala but, first, there’s another in thunderstorm to get through.
This time the apartment is on the 4th floor with views of the sea, the town and the rock from the two small balconies and the storm is, actually, fun to observe this time, particularly since we know from the forecast that sunny days are, immediately, around the corner.
Off the bat, Cefalu seems to have its act together: Even outside the tourist areas the infrastructure looks good, there are very few street dogs, not much graffiti and less trash strewn around. As already noted, the setting is excellent and the old town is very picturesque, albeit rough around the edges, which is standard in Sicily, yet it also feels completely safe. In high Summer the town is completely jammed and hot as hades so Autumn is s good time to visit, though we’re pushing it with early November as many places are shutting down for the season and there is a lot of noisy and dusty renovation work going on during these slower times.
n our first walk around town we run right into the Teatro Comunale which has a performance honoring the life and music of Rosa Balistreri, a famous Sicilian folk singer starting in 10 minutes, and it’s raining, so why not? It’s just a female singer and a kickass acoustic guitarist with much of it moody, with a gypsy and flamenco feel, plus some obvious pop singalongs that she wrote to pay the rent thrown in. It’s nice to check-in on music that doesn’t come out of the US/UK entertainment machine.
When you stay in the center of a historical Italian town you have to put up with the church bells, and Cefalu is no different, so sleeping past 8am is impossible without industrial quality hearing protection. However, on Sunday November 4th we were awakened, instead, by the sound of a brass band and, soon, a parade went by directly under our balcony. 11/04 is Italy’s national unification and armed forces day, so behind the band was a small group of senior veterans. These guys were too young for WWII so that stain on the country’s history was not re-highlighted. Not surprisingly, there is little to no mention of WWII throughout Italy.
Looking at everyday life in Italy today, it’s hard to imagine how they got sucked into fascism, but their political system is fragile and populism is on the rise again with the “Five Star Movement” and “The League” having 55% of the seats in the Parliament. We don’t seem to learn from mistakes made in the past and Italy is far from the only country with the same problem right now.
Cefalu is near the Parco delle Madonie National Park, so a hiking day trip is in order. Sicily actually has decent freeways which, due to the crazy topography, consist mostly of extended bridges, but the endless expansion joints get very annoying after the first few hundred jolts. After the requisite detour through precipitous mountain tracks we arrive at the hill town of Polizzi Generosa which gives the easiest access to the park. Only a few more miles and we’re into a pine forest at 3,000 feet and the scenery is spectacular. We don’t see another hiker the whole time we’re on the trail.
Panoramas are ten a penny, hill towns perched in the distance, a big herd of roe deer, Autumn color, an immense rock escarpment and ultra endangered Sicilian Firs, each one numbered and fenced off as there are less than 40 in the wild and they’re all right here in the park. It’s cool enough to consider coming back some year just to focus on the hiking and the hill towns in these mountains.
With the good weather holding up the following day, La Rocca is the next peak to be conquered and the path starts off right next to Cefalu’s cathedral (Duomo) only a few minutes from the apartment. It’s short but very steep and has plenty of eye candy along the way to make you feel better about the slog. Cefalu’s largest colony of street cats greets you at the bottom, then make your way up the Salita Saraceni, a monumental staircase, with views expanding as you go until your arrival at the ruins of the 4th Century BC (!!) Temple of Diana.
You’re not done yet though as a trail spills out into semi-open hillside and you wind your way all the way to the top where a ruined Norman castle perches on top providing 360 degree views.
I should give a shout out to Cefalu’s “Fruit and Veg” man who drives his tiny flatbed truck through the narrow streets of the old town every morning calling out in a street crier voice I know not what, but probably upon the lines of “Pound yer bananas, two pound yer pears. Look at these lovely cauliflowers” etc.
Oh yeah, our excellent accommodation was on the 4th floor, no elevator and steep AF, so it was fun getting the long haul luggage up and down them. We both may have put on 10lbs on this trip but if there’s a stair climbing competition we’re ready to kick your rear ends.
Although we didn’t find a great outdoor market in Cefalu we did come across an excellent store, Deco Natural, which appears to be Italy’s answer to Whole Foods, if WF’s prices were 50% lower. If you’re vegan, which we’re not yet, you really need a place like this as you’ll get very tired of pasta and uncreative salads after a while here.
Cefalu was fun but it’s time to move on across the island to the SE Coast and the town of Siracusa. Our excessively long trip is getting close to winding
up and, even though we feel profoundly exhausted, I’m there are a couple more adventures to be had.
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