What is Gangi known for?

Won the first RAI Borgo dei Borghi competition in 2014, the silhouette of houses spilling down Monte Marone now the canonical Madonie image. The Ventimiglia counts of Geraci rebuilt Gangi after 1300 and built the castle and tower that still anchor the upper town. Black truffles harvested in the Madonie woodlands, paired with local pecorino, wild fennel sausage and Castelbuono manna in the regional cuisine.

Gangi is a comune in the province of Palermo, Sicily region of Italy, about 127 kilometers from Palermo.

Sicily · Palermo

Gangi

A Madonie hill town stacked down Monte Marone at 1,011 meters, RAI's Borgo dei Borghi 2014 and the launching pad for the one-euro-house programme.

1011m

Elevation

127 km / 79 mi

Nearest hub (Palermo)

6,110

Population

Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Gangi sits at 1,011 meters on the southern slope of Monte Marone, the easternmost edge of the Madonie, eighty kilometers southeast of Palermo. The current settlement dates to 1300, rebuilt after its earlier town was destroyed in the Sicilian Vespers war, as part of the Ventimiglia county of Geraci. The Castello dei Ventimiglia rises over the rooftops, built in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century by Enrico Ventimiglia, count of Geraci. Below the castle, the houses descend in tight stone tiers toward the Salso valley, photographed often enough to land Gangi the RAI Borgo dei Borghi title in 2014. The municipal council launched a one-euro-house scheme the following year and stuck with it longer than most. The territory is Città del Tartufo, with black truffles from the Madonie woodlands, and the local sausage with wild fennel travels as far as the manna and ricotta from neighboring Castelbuono.

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Gallery

8 photos · scroll →

Known for

Castello dei Ventimiglia
Late thirteenth to early fourteenth-century fortress at the top of the town, built by Enrico Ventimiglia, lord of Gangi and count of Geraci.
Torre dei Ventimiglia
Square stone tower attached to the Chiesa Madre, second piece of the Ventimiglia defensive system, dominating the Gangi skyline alongside the castle.
Chiesa Madre di San Nicolò
Fourteenth-century mother church with a Giuseppe Salerno altarpiece and the Camposanto, an underground crypt with mummified clergy.
Centro storico stacked on Monte Marone
Concentric rings of stone houses descending the southern slope of Monte Marone, the silhouette that won the 2014 Borgo dei Borghi vote.
Parco delle Madonie
Regional park surrounding the town, beech and ash forests, truffle ground and the highest peaks of central Sicily including Pizzo Carbonara.

When to visit

Best months · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

At 1,011 meters, Gangi runs cooler than coastal Sicily. June through September are the dry trekking months in the Madonie, with daytime temperatures around twenty-five degrees and the surrounding beech forests in full leaf. July and August on the coast are oppressive; up here they are walkable. The Sagra della Spiga in early August fills the centro storico with reenactors and grain-harvest rituals. December through March bring snow on Pizzo Carbonara and the Piano Battaglia ski area thirty minutes away; the town stays open through winter. April, May, October and November are the in-between months, often wet and shut.