In Sambuca di Sicilia, among Saracen alleys reborn thanks to 1 euro houses

The experience

The last to make her home here was Lorraine Bracco, the American actress from The Sopranos and
Goodfellas
. From Hollywood to Sambuca di Sicilia. But this entire hamlet of just over five thousand inhabitants in southern Sicily, ninety kilometers from Agrigento and eighteen from the sea, surrounded by grape vines as far as the eye can see, is now inhabited by a multicultural cohort that has made its home here, where houses for 1 euro is not just a slogan but a path to real rebirth.

Here, then, is a “relational tour” organized by Italea Sicilia, in the company of local experts, where stops among the treasures of the village will alternate with breaks in the homes of the new inhabitants that will allow them to learn many stories of emigration to the contrary… And that will make the traveler return home with a suitcase full of stories and encounters, as well as a parchment of “temporary citizen” of Sambuca di Sicilia, conferred by the municipal administration.

Among the new residents are Americans who have made the journey of roots, searching for their roots and then chose to make their home here. But also a Milanese philosopher, a Swiss lawyer-botanist, a Roman journalist. And then Lithuanian couples, German families who have put down roots and share a slow, communal rhythm of chatting in the square, impromptu cultural gatherings, and invitations on terraces overlooking the sea on one side and the archaeological site of the ancient Greek-Punic city of Adranon on the other.

Therefore, to visit Sambuca di Sicilia, awarded in 2016 as Italy’s Most Beautiful Village, is to enter – albeit temporarily – a global community where the farmer who brings fresh ricotta cohabits with artists and intellectuals from halfway around the world. A visitor experience here takes in the neighborhood built to defend the castle of the Arab Emir Al Zabut, the stone quarries under the main square, the Panitteri Palace with its important archaeological collection, the Mudia diocesan museum, the church of Santa Caterina with its overflowing rococo, the Gianbecchina Foundation with the faces carved out by the peasants in the artist’s paintings, and the Museum of Textile Sculptures by French artist Sylvie Clavel, who lived in Sambuca di Sicilia for years.

But above all, there is the village, with the alleys, cobblestones, courtyards, the last embroiderers, the
minnes of virgins
, the sweet with the impudent name and shape (the breasts of virgins), also mentioned by Tomasi di Lampedusa in The Leopard. Above all, there is the value of relationships. The pleasure of being together, of chatting, of appreciating the beautiful, of welcoming the stranger, of feeling community. A new model of coexistence.