Isnello, Piccolo e Bello
by Jane Cottrell
 

On the great wall of the Vatican Library is a mural of Sicily that was painted in 1580-1583 based on the drawings of friar and geographer, Ignazio Danti. All the wall maps are considered to be about 80% accurate. There are not many villages or towns portrayed on the Sicilian map, but Isnello is clearly one small site located just south of Cefalù. Isnello is nestled among high limestone walls. At the top of one of the foothills is the ruin of a castle that dates from the 13th century. Records show that the community had been a Greek and Arab settlement and remains from an Arab excavation have been found. 

My mother and father were both born and raised in Isnello although they really didn’t know each other growing up. My siblings and I grew up hearing “Isnello, Piccolo e Bello” from my mother whose heart remained in this medieval village of Isnello in the province of Palermo. It is roughly 39 miles to Palermo from Isnello. Access to the village that is south of Cefalu, is up a winding, switchback mountain road into the interior of the Madonie Mountains.  

The town remains pretty much like it was when my parents lived there in the early 20th century. Most of the residents were farmers, whose farms were a good walk or horseback or donkey ride out of town. There might be a small cabin built on the farm. I visited our family’s little farm and stayed overnight at the little 2 story house when I visited back in 1952. My distinct recollection of eating a raw egg there has never left me. 

I started returning to Sicily in 1996 and have been back almost a half dozen times since. I can say that Isnello has not changed much in the almost 65+ years since I first went there as a child. I’m not sure what the present day livelihood of the villagers is. The houses are centuries old and the streets are narrow and laid out in an enigmatic pattern. There are about 2,800 people who currently reside there. 

I have first cousins who live in Sicily and I visit them whenever I get the chance. I have maintained a closer relationship with those on my mother’s side. Somehow or other, maybe because my father never went back to Italy after 1925, I don’t have contact with his nieces and nephews. 

One of my cousins lives in Isnello on an estate that overlooks the village. His joy is the garden and the animals that he raises there. He and his wife have a restaurant in Piano Battaglia, Il Ristoro dello Scoiattolo. It gets rave reviews on  Trip Advisor. The restaurant also provides a webcam look of the hills around it.  Check it out, especially if you are traveling there. We never had the time to dine at their restaurant but we have been guests in their home. Mama Mia!  Meals to dream about. 

Some members of our CAI group have stayed at the Refugio that the brothers used to run in the Parco delle  Madonie.

The people of Isnello are very proud of the fact that the mayor of New York City, Vincent Impellitteri (1950-1953) was born in Isnello, even though he and his family left when he was a year old. In fact, after World War II, while he was mayor of NYC in 1950, he visited and his parting gift to the village was to have a bath house or a place for people to shower built for them. As a youngster, I was there two years later and I was never sure if the villagers were grateful or amused. Even today though, they will proudly point out the strada that is named for him. Carlo Levi, the great Italian author, wrote an essay in Words Are Stones: Impressions of Sicily, about that visit. 

A small square with a fountain unofficially called Il Ponto that overlooks a small rivulet caused the villagers to fear that they would be bombed during WWII.  My mother often read that in their letters to her. Truly, il Ponto is not a strategic site.

But like many hill towns, Isnello is losing its young people to a more modern lifestyle or better opportunities outside.  The rest of my cousins have moved to Cefalu or Palermo. Some of the their children reside in Milan and Syracusa. A big boost to the economy is the GAL Hassin, International Center for the Astronomical Sciences, that I was lucky enough to visit in 2019. It is unlike any planetarium that I have been to. The telescopes which are probably human sized are housed in a garage like building. When researchers study the stars, the building moves forward on tracks to view the open sky. The stationary telescopes track asteroids, monitor space debris, gamma ray bursts and gravitational wave sources. They also study variable stars and active galactic nuclei. Excerpted from their brochure, “No telescopes of comparable capabilities exist in the whole European continent as of now and none are foreseen to be built in the near future.” There is an auditorium and study areas for visitors. Wikipedia claims that NASA built this astronomical center, but I did not see reference to that in their pamphlet. 

In gratitude to the village, GAL Hassin has named Asteroid 6168 “Isnello," a minor planet in the Asteroid Main Belt. 

If you should be in the vicinity of Isnello, the Madonie Mountains, or Cefalù, the nearest big city, I would like to recommend Il Ristoro dello Scoiattolo, and Agrodolce B&B in Cefalù, run by my young cousin. She gets rave reviews, as well, on Trip Advisor. If you go, be sure to tell them I sent you.

Linda Bavisotto and Bill Lemcke have passed through Isnello and I would like to thank Linda for directing me to this half hour video about a festival of food, what else, in Isnello.

“Live from Isnello, Part 2” – things to do around Isnello:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=1755999194531843&ref=watch_permalink