At the recent BTE non-hotel travel show in Palermo Antonio Gargano, municipal councillor of Bagheria explained why this Sicilian city should be on the radar of all visitors.
Historic villas and the Renato Guttuso Museum
“From the second half of the 17th century onwards the most important rich and powerful Sicilian aristocratic families, who lived in Palermo, chose the Bagheria area to build their holiday villas on what was both forest and farmland.” This epic story lasted 150 years, ending in the 18th century and in those 150 years, some 44 magnificent villas were built in little more than six kilometres. “Today there are still 33 of these villas left standing, and then we have Villa Cattolica, home to the Renato Guttuso Museum, which the critics say is among the most important in the Mediterranean, housing over 1,000 works by Guttuso, and many other artists.”
Non-hotel choices and the Domina Club Zagarella
Bagheria and the Marinara d’Aspra – which is the only area on the sea in the province of Palermo that enjoys the entire Gulf of Palermo – has over 500 B&Bs and holiday homes. “There we have ten hotels, and in the nearby municipality of Santa Flavia, there is the Domina Club Zagarella which is ideal for larger groups. Many visitors arrive by plane at Falcone-Borsellino Airport. Bagheria is about 50 kilometres to the east by car, or they can take the metro to Palermo railway station from which there are trains leaving every 15 minutes for Bagheria.”
“We have extraordinary wines and two Michelin restaurants”
Bagheria is a city of taste, and the local cuisine blends the traditions of its typical more rural style of cooking with its seafaring heritage. “We also have extraordinary wines like those from the Duca di Salaparuta winery, which are appreciated the world over. And, although we have only 60, 000 inhabitants we can boast two Micheli-starred restaurants: II Pupi, with two Michelin stars, and Limu, which also has two stars and is inside a 16th-century tower in the historic centre of the city.”
