The Belice area: from the earthquake to modern town re-building

  The territory crossed by the Belice river has sadly become famous for the sisma that during the night of 14 January 1968 razed to the ground entire villages. The itinerary covers some of the most severely hit villages. and allows us to understand the problems connected with town rebuilding and different urban planning criteria used to solve them. From the ruins of Salaparuta, a village that developed on the site of ancient Menzil Salah, to Poggioreale, the remains of which were chosen by the film director Giuseppe Tornatore as a location to shoot some of the scenes of the movie "Malena".

  After a stop at New Poggioreale and New Salaparuta, we drive on to the area more dramatically hit by the sisma, through old Gibellina whose ruins were covered by a large slab of white concrete known as the creto designed architect Alberto Burri. The new town was reconstructed exnovo 18 km away and is dotted with works by numerous contemporary artists. Not to be missed the Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Etno-anthropological Museum of th Belice Valley. Our last stop is Salemi with a streets' layout of Islamic derivation cleverly restored after the earthquake. Visit of the Castle and walk through the medieval alleys and dead-end alleys known as vaneddi di l'infernu.