About Sicily

The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy: The Petralie and Blufi, Small Jewels Set in the Heart of the Madonie

Sicily, in addition to its famous beaches and natural landscapes among the most beautiful in the world, offers in its hinterland small jewels very often set on the rocks. This is the case of “Petralia Soprana” and the other famous Petralia “Petralia Sottana”. Between one Petralia and another we find, suspended in time, a village called Blufi of just 1,000 inhabitants living at 726 meters of height.

Discovering Authentic Sicily

If you are looking for the most authentic Sicily, these are the ideal places to visit where you can spend a few days and live at the rhythms of the villages.

Petralia Soprana and Petralia Sottana: Sisters But Divided

Both descend from ancient Petra, a Sican city that was later also Roman and Arab. In the Arab period, it took the name of Batraliah, which it kept until the arrival of the Normans. It was only from about 1250 that a Petrali Superior and an Inferior began to be distinguished. Almost next to each other, it is impossible to privilege one without excluding the other.

Petralia Soprana: Elected Among the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy

The village is the highest of the Madonie and is located 1,147 meters high from where you can admire breathtaking landscapes and views: the top of Etna, the city of Enna, the valleys, and mountains of Palermo. In Petralia Soprana, you can breathe the atmosphere of a typical medieval village. The structure of the city is still the original one: narrow cobbled streets, palaces, and churches, stone houses.

Among the most striking monuments are certainly the church of Santa Maria di Loreto of the seventeenth century, rebuilt in 1750 on the remains of a Saracen castle. Here, majestic bell towers with their spires stand out. Perhaps less known in Petralia Soprana is the salt deposit, one of the richest in Europe, in which you can admire the salt sculptures in the museum of contemporary art. Visits are by appointment only.

Petralia Sottana in the Heart of the Madonie

Here it is pleasant to walk among churches, palaces, and small streets with ancient charm. Petralia Sottana can be visited on foot following the route of the Urban Geological Path, a unique itinerary in Europe that is indicated with brass studs. Walking, you will discover the fossils of the Miocene, corals on the portals of houses and churches, springs, karst caves, and an ancient snowfield, a black poplar among the monumental trees of the Madonie Park.

Also worth a visit is the sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Alto, an evocative place where absolute silence reigns and where you are enchanted by the 360º panoramic view. The sanctuary is located at 1,800 meters.

Blufi and Its Famous Wild Red Tulips

Not far from Petralie is Blufi, the town that in spring spontaneously paints itself red with its tulips. A show that nature gives us every year and precisely in front of the sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Olio in a wheat field. If you love nature and landscape photography, this is definitely a place to visit.

Other Enchanting Places in Blufi

In Blufi, there are many other enchanting places to visit full of charm and mystery. The sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Olio, for example. It is said that a few hundred meters away is a spring of mineral oil carved into the rock. Legend has it that this oil once had miraculous powers. Other places to visit are the Romanesque bridge with three arches, Rocca Marabuto in which there is a tomb probably dating back to the Arab period, and the church of Christ the King.