3 days – programme for individuals        Prices from   €  102.50

Day 1
Leaving behind the chaotic noise of Palermo and the last vestiges of the Conca d’Oro, the road passes through green countryside delimited on one side by the town of Monreale and on the other by Altofonte. Suddenly the wide-open countryside of the Valle dello Jato opens up before your eyes. Making a mental note to come back to spend more time here in the future, turn off in the direction of Piana degli Albanesi, where you will immediately arrive at Portella delle Ginestre. Here you will see the memorial to the victims of a mafia massacre committed on 1^st May 1947 by Salvatore Giuliano and his followers against a group of farmhands who were there to celebrate Labour Day: an important day in Sicilian history. A few minutes later, immersed in some enchanting verdant countryside, capped by a Lake, you will arrive at Piana degli Albanesi.  This “strange” town, which was founded in the 15^th Century by a group of Albanians fleeing prosecution from the Ottoman Turks, still today maintains its ethnic-linguistic and religious identity. You can’t visit Piana degli Albanesi without trying the excellent bread, made with hard wheat and cooked in old wood-burning ovens. However, the main protagonist of Arbëreshë gastronomy is without doubt the Cannolo di ricotta, whose secret lies in the making of the wafer (shkorça), using flour, wine, starch and salt, which is filled with sieved sugared ricotta and chocolate chips. Eating a cannolo is like tasting a piece of Sicily and in Piana degli Albanesi, we will offer you a cannolo  par excellence that will be prepared fresh so that you can appreciate it fully……an unforgettable gastronomic experience.  Continuing in the direction of Ficuzza/Corleone, the winding road will take you higher and higher. Just as you’re leaving the view of the lake and the town behind you, you will suddenly come across the rocky cliff face of Rocca Busambra, which provides an ever present backdrop to the majestic Wood of Ficuzza. The road, which winds between fields of cereal and old farmhouses, soon leads to Corleone. Just out of the centre of town, at the foot of the Castello Sottano, are the Cascades of the Two Rocks. In the countryside around Corleone, at the Fattoria Giardinello, owned by Stefano Bellanca, you will be able to taste some fragrant caciotte and genuine ricotta cheeses, the pride of the farm’s production. For dinner and accommodation you can choose between the following Agriturismos: Al Poggetto, Sant’Agata, both situated between Piana degli Albanesi and the Wood of Ficuzza, Antica Stazione Ferroviaria or Gorgo del Drago, situated on the edge of the Wood or "Il Borgo" holiday house and flat (Ficuzza). The strong point of all these agriturismos is their cuisine. You will have a meal full of flavour thanks to the produced locally ingredients. Menus will differ according to the season.

Day 2  
Day 2 should be spent in the Wood, which is one of the largest and most beautiful in Sicily. In the kingdom of the golden eagle there are still many endemic plants of great botanical interest and the area is home to 80% of the region’s species of birds and wild fauna. The whole area is a Nature Reserve that includes not only the Woods themselves but also the Rocca Busmbra, the Wood of Cappelliere and the area of the Gorgo del Drago. There are a great many walking routes, including the old railway line that has been recovered as part of a Provincial Tourist Board project, which you can experience in your own rhythm and depending on how you wish to pass your time in this natural paradise…..on foot, by bike or on horseback. To know more about the environment, the flora and the fauna, it is possible to be pay for an expert environmental guide, Giuseppe Ippolito, to help you explore the territory and learn how to “listen to the voice of the wood”. Make sure you visit the small borgo di Ficuzza and its imposing “Royal Hunting Lodge” built by King Ferdinand III in about 1803. For lunch we recommend the “Masseria Aguglia” near the borgo. Dinner, a triumph of tastes and fragrances, will be served in the agriturismo in which you have chosen to stay.

3 days / 2 nights  (minimum 2 people)   Price in Euro,  from January 2006 to March 2007