Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WORTH A TRIP
CORLEONE: AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE
Having suffered centuries of poverty and possessing a well-documented history as a Mafia stronghold, the town
of Corleone - 60km from Palermo and best known through Francis Ford Coppola's classic
Godfather
trilogy -
has been trying to reinvent itself over the last decade. It is now home to
CIDMA
(Centro Internazionale di Docu-
mentazione sulla Mafia e Movimento Antimafia; 340 4025601, 091 845 242 95; cidmacorleone@gmail.com;
Via Giovanni Valenti 7, Corleone; admission €5; by arrangement) , an absorbing and extremely moving anti-
Mafia museum located in a small cobbled street off Piazza Garibaldi. The centre aims to promote speaking out
against organised crime rather than succumbing to the Mafia-promoted culture of
omertà
(silence).
English-, Spanish- and Italian-speaking tour guides recount the terrifying history of the local Mafia but focus
on the brave efforts of anti-Mafia campaigners and judges. A huge 'No Mafia' sign greets visitors at the entrance,
as does a quote from murdered anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone: 'It's necessary to keep up your duty to the
end at all costs, however hard may be the sacrifice to bear, because this is the essence of human dignity'. Three
rooms are visited: the first holds the documents from the maxi trials of 1986-87; the second exhibits photos by
photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, who documented Mafia crimes in the 1970s and 1980s; and the third displays
photos of Mafia bosses, the men of justice who fought them and people who have lost loved ones.
The museum can be visited by guided tour only. Call or email ahead to reserve a space, as tour frequency and
the availability of multilingual guides vary.
AST buses travel between Palermo and Corleone (€4.80, 1½ hours, nine daily). In Corleone, passengers are
dropped off at Piazza Falcone e Borsellino, a five-minute walk from the museum. If you'd like to eat here or stay
the night,
Al Capriccio
( 091 846 79 38;
http://trattoria-alcapriccio.it
; Via Sant'Agostino 39, Corleone; s/d
€30/60) offers low-cost, very basic B&B accommodation a stone's throw from the museum, with an attached
pizzeria-trattoria. A better lodging and dining option for those traveling by car is the converted train station
Antica Stazione Ferrovia di Ficuzza (
Click here
), a 20-minute drive northeast of Corleone on the road to Palermo.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Mondello
In the summer months, it sometimes seems as if the entire city population has packed a
beach towel, an iPod and a pair of D&G shades and decamped to this popular beach resort
only a 20-minute drive north from the centre of town.
Originally a muddy, malaria-ridden port, Mondello only really became fashionable in
the 19th century, when the city's elite flocked here in their carriages, thus warranting the
huge Liberty-style pier that dominates the seafront and kicking off a craze for building op-
ulent summer villas. Most of the beaches are private (two loungers and an umbrella cost
around €10 per day), but there is also a wide swath of public beach crammed with swim-
mers, pedalos and noisy jet skis.
