Page 541 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

SICIL Y  539

9 Cefalù
Palermo. * 14,000. V @ n Corso
Ruggero 77 (0921 42 10 50). ( Sat.
∑ cefalu.it
This pretty seaside town, with
sandy beaches, restaurants and
hotels, is dominated by a huge
rock known as La Rocca – once
the site of a Temple of Diana –
and by one of the finest
Norman cathedrals in Sicily.
Begun in 1131 by Roger II, the
Duomo was intended as the
main religious seat in Sicily.
Though it failed to fulfil this
function, the building’s
magnificence has never been
eclipsed. Its splendid mosaics
(1148), which feature an image
of Christ Pantocrator in the apse,
are remarkable and often
celebrated as purely Byzantine
works of art on Sicilian soil.
The Museo Mandralisca
houses a fine Portrait of a Man
(c.1465) by Antonello da Messi­ The twin-towered façade of the Norman Duomo in Cefalù
na and a collection of coins,
ceramics, vases and minerals. inhabitants, and was a great
power and rival to Siracusa. In The Mafia
E Museo Mandralisca 406 BC it fell to the Carthaginians, An international organization
Via Mandralisca. Tel 0921 42 15 47. who sacked and burned it. founded in Sicily, the Mafia
Open 9am–7pm daily (later in The historic core of the city, developed as a result of
summer). & with its medieval streets, focuses the cruel State and severe
on the Via Atenea. Santo Spirito poverty. By the late 19th
(13th century) houses stuccoes century it had become a
by Giacomo Serpotta (1695). criminal organization thriving
Santa Maria dei Greci was built on property speculation and
on the remains of a 5th­century drug trafficking. Since the
BC temple – see the flattened “singing” of Tommaso
Buscetta and the capture of
columns in the nave. The Duomo, Toto Riina, the Mafia has been
founded in the 14th century on the defensive against a
and altered in the 16th and State that has doubled its
17th centuries, exhibits a unique efforts against it. The “Boss of
mixture of Arab, Norman and Bosses”, Bernardo Provenzano,
Catalan detailing. was arrested in 2006 after
43 years on the run. Viol ence
Environs is common in Sicily, but it is
The chief reason to visit not directed at tourists.
The lavish apse of Cefalù’s Duomo Agrigento is to see the
archaeological zone known as
the Valley of the Temples (see
0 Agrigento p540). The Museo Regionale
Archeologico houses an
* 59,000. V @ g n Via
Empedocle 73 (0922 203 91); Piazzale interesting display of artifacts
Aldo Moro (0922 59 36 78). ( Fri. from the temples and the
∑ www.comune.agrigento.it city, including a collection of
vases, coins and Greek and
Modern Agrigento occupies the Roman sculpture.
site of Akragas, an important
city of the ancient Greek world. E Museo Regionale Archeologico Mafia assassination depicted in this
Founded by Daedalus, according Contrada San Nicola, Viale Panoramica. scene from the film The Godfather
to legend, it was famed for Tel 0922 40 15 65. Open 9am–7:30pm Part III (1990)
the luxurious lifestyle of its daily (to 1:30pm Mon, Sun). & 7

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