Vizzini

At 60 km from Catania in the Hyblaean Mountains, on the most northwesterly slopes of Monte Lauro, Vizzini rises on the spot of ancient Bidis, a Roman city mentioned by Pliny and Cicero.

In the Middle Ages the population lived around a now non-extant castle, as a fiefdom of various lords, including the Chiaromontes and the Schittinos, and was long under the influence of the Arab domination, as can be seen in many areas of the medieval center, especially in via San Gregorio Magno.

The writer Giovanni Verga used Vizzini as the setting for his "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Mastro Don Gesualdo", describing places and scenes that are still recognizable (the prickly pears of Cunziria, and in a sloping alley the house of the Trao family).

WHAT TO SEE

Palazzo di Citta (early 19th century)

Palace of the Verga family

Chiesa di Sant'Agata, rebuilt in the 18th century on the site of a previous 15th century building.

The Cathedral with a portal on the left side of the church, in splendid Gothic-Catalan style, probably from the old Town Hall destroyed by the 1693 earthquake; inside a wooden ceiling by Natale Bonaiuto, as well as two 16th-century paintings (The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the Madonna della Mercede) by Florentine painter Filippo Paladini.

Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista, decorated inside by Bonaiuto.

Chiesa dei Minori Osservanti, with a fine statue of the Madonna and Child (1527)