A small village of 420 inhabitants, it has a castle, a bar, and a grocery store—and nothing happens
A Journey into the Sicilian Heartland
The setting for this new episode is a rural area in the Sicilian interior. We are far from the “hot spots” of tourism and more precisely we are in Granieri. In this tiny hamlet of the town of Caltagirone, in the province of Catania, agriculture reigns supreme: olives, broccoli, eggplants, potatoes, but above all table grapes, the area’s flagship product. Granieri is now a village consisting mainly of three streets and two small squares: Via Roma, Via Firenze, Via Torino, Piazza Giovanni Silvestri, and Piazza Orvieto. There are other streets, but the three mentioned above are where life in this small village takes place. The central hub from which the village develops is the Castle, or Magione, of Granieri, a historic place that we will discuss shortly. In Piazza Silvestri, there is also a small municipal delegation from the Municipality of Caltagirone, but nature rules here, with its own pace and strict demands. The inhabitants respond to these demands with hard work.
To get here, we left Palermo and after almost three hours by car, we reached this small village of 400 people. We are welcomed by Giorgio, the son of the owner of most of the castle—which he shares with other members of his family—and the countryside, both purchased by a distant ancestor. Giorgio is a young man of almost thirty, who passionately recounts the history of the castle.
The Story of the Castle
The first owner was Antonio Silvestri, then president of the Court of Palermo, who bought it at auction in 1866 from the state, which had confiscated it from the clergy. There was nothing but land around it. The reason for the purchase was the need to give his son Giovanni, who suffered from asthma, a place to breathe clean air. The castle was completed in 1885, as stated in the inscription at the entrance to the main building. Once he arrived, Antonio gathered men from the surrounding areas to begin farming the land surrounding the castle, which at that time amounted to about 1,200 hectares. After a few years, the Magione had many of the typical features of a town: workers, fields nearby, houses where the farmers and their families lived, a Carabinieri barracks with a small cell for any prisoners, an elementary school, and a small garden for relaxing.
Today, the tiny village of Granieri, some 150 years after Antonio’s purchase, has changed, but not too much. Once upon a time, there was only the lord’s fiefdom, with the master and his farmhands, who were paid partly with the opportunity to live in the farmyard and partly in cash. Then, over the years, particularly from 1930 onwards, Granieri expanded with a few small roads, notably the three mentioned above, which start from the square in front of the castle entrance. As mentioned, around 420 people live here today, and Giorgio is happy to introduce us to village life.
Life in Granieri
Our guide was born and raised in Palermo, where he still lives, commuting between the city and the countryside. “The countryside is a magnificent place, far from the hustle and bustle and stress of the city,” he tells us. Many of his memories are linked to this place where, for about ten years during his childhood, he came to spend his summers playing soccer and riding bikes with the local kids. Those kids have grown up, but Giorgio has the kind of friendship with them that comes from knowing each other since childhood, which is not at all affected by his status in the village.
We sit down for a beer in Granieri’s only bar. At the end of the working day, young and old alike gather here to spend some time together before going home, sipping a drink. Between 6 and 8 p.m. at the Caffè del Borgo, friendliness reigns supreme, and laughter is guaranteed even for those coming from the milder temperatures of city life. We talk about a wide variety of topics, with soccer certainly having its place. But at a certain point, two trucks steal the show.
Granieri is a transit town that even heavy vehicles are forced to pass through. One of these, a huge one, stops and parks on the street in front of the bar. “We’ll look after it for you,” the boys joke to the driver, who hurriedly runs to buy something at the Caffè del Borgo. A moment later, another truck arrives and is forced to stop. The other driver comes running back with a beer in his hand, which everyone sees. A heated discussion ensues on the subject, involving none other than the driver of the other truck, who brakes to have his say to us standing in front of the bar on the sidewalk. The verdict is unanimous and negative: you mustn’t drink anything if you’re driving these vehicles. The driver of the second truck waves from the window and continues on his way.
Peppe, the Poet, and the Call of Nature
Shortly afterwards, we go inside. We were sitting outside before, and we meet a guy called Giuseppe Belluardo, known as Peppe. “He knows three thousand verses of the Divine Comedy by heart,” Giorgio and his friends swear. Shortly afterwards, Peppe is already reciting Purgatory. We applaud, pay, and go to roast a horse meatball—no offense to anyone, but it’s a typical product—and some sausage.
The castle is not open to tourists, but there are some cozy farmhouses in the surrounding area where you can stay. The area is not particularly touristy but is an excellent base for visiting the beautiful surrounding areas of eastern Sicily. Caltagirone is definitely worth a visit, which we will talk about in the next episode.
As mentioned, we are far from the tourist areas, and agriculture reigns supreme here. “Whether I delight you or benefit you, I do not know,” says the personification of Nature in Giacomo Leopardi’s “Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander”… we tried to approach Peppe. To remind us that the employer here is very strict, we have to go to sleep.