Italy: Our beautiful country

Furnari: The origins between history and legend

The historyThe history of Furnari began about 1300 thanks to a Mr Filippo Furnari, from Genoa, whom the Norman King Federico II named baron of a territory which extended to the sea. The Baron built there a fortress around which a feudal village developed that was governed by his family for four centuries. The village was ruled by the princes Marziani from 1691 to 1813, when feudalism was abolished and Furnari became a free municipality.

The legend

• Furnari is a village on a small hill, 145 m above the sea level and 60 km from Messina. The official coat of arms represents a hound, three roses and the words “ Until he comes”. It refers to a legend which tells the story of the Norman king Ruggero D’Altavilla, whose beloved hound was wounded during a hunting beat. Fortunately a poor peasant, named Antonio Furnari, who lived there gave immediately aid to the poor beast blocking the haemorrhage with healing herbs. The King , who never revealed his identity, put his dog into the hands of the peasant and recommended him to take care of it “ until he came back”, what the poor man actually did. After a long time, when the hound was completely healed, the King came back with lots of knights and servants bringing the royal standard. The peasant finally realised who the dog’s owner was and knelt down. But the King named him prince of the territory, which became after some time a small village.

• The village• Furnari is a quiet, rural

village on a hill, three km from Terme Vigliatore, between Mazzarà and Falcone. You can see there booming fields cultivated with olive and fruit trees, grape-wine plants and many kinds of vegetables. The main items of the economy of the village are in fact oil and its famous red wine. The village has got narrow streets with lost of yellow houses.

The pine tree

A huge pine treewelcomes the visitors atthe entrance of thevillage.The centre of Furnari isrepresented by “piazzaMarconi”(Marconi square)with its city clock and itsbeautiful viewpoint abovethe sea.

Tonnarella

• The hamlet of Tonnarella is three m. above the sea level two km from Furnari to which it belongs.

It has almost 1000 inhabitants and a beautiful beach, crowded with tourists in summer.

Monuments

The main church (called Matrice) was built in 1600 on the ruins of the Castle of the Princes and rebuilt in 1929. The church contains some precious works like a big wooden crucifix from the XVI century, a little marble low-relief from the XVI century in the shape of a little classical temple with sacred oils inside; an oil painting representing the Madonna; a wooden organ with lead pipes; a marble ledge representing St Francis of Paola crossing the Straits of Messina; the belfry with the sounding clock with a big dial.

St. Anthony Church

This church was built in 1600 by the

Marziani Princes. There you can see

the statue of St. Anthony and the

one of the Ecce Homo, moreover

some paintings of saints dating XVI

and XVII cent., the polychrome

marble high altar from St. Marco

D’Alunzio ( a tiny village in the

Nebrodi mountains) dedicated to

St. Anthony dating back to the year

1785.

Jesus and Mary Church• This church was built about 1600, it was called long ago Church of Our

Lady of the rescue. In this building there is a cellar covered by a tombstone, where the corpses of monks belonging to the Congregation of St. Maria SS. Addolorata where buried. Noteworthy is also an oil painting dating back to the XVI cent. representing the abbot Giuseppe Millemagi, a well known Sicilian preacher.

The gastronomy

• Specialities of Furnari are generally fish courses or delicious vegetable recipes largely dressed with local olive oil. Typical dishes are: pickled swordfish au gratin, stuffed squid, pickled anchovies, “beccafico anchovies “, “parmigiana” (baked layers of aubergines, tomato and cheese), pasta with cauliflower, pasta alla norma ( pasta with tomato sauce, fried aubergines and grated baked ricotta cheese, peperonata ( dish of pepper and tomato) and so on.

Tripi

• Tripi is a small ancient village on a hill , 500 m above the sea level, 75 km from Messina in the so called Bosco di Malabotta

(the Malabotta forest) a kind of wildlife reserve in the Nebrodi mountains.

The History

• Long time ago Tripi was called Abacena ( from the Greek word Abakainon). In the VII century B.C. the Greek came to Sicily and colonized its coasts, at first they established good commercial relationships with the natives, but then they began to control and subdue them so that in 459 the Sicilians started a war against the Greek, but they were defeated with their allies, the Carthaginians

Abakainon

• In 262 B.C. Abakainon was conquered by the Romans who called it Abacaenum or Abacaena.

• Abacena spontaneously submit to the new conquerors, but it remained a hard-working city with a well developed economy and it even had the right to coin money since the fifth century B.C.. Unfortunately the city declined after different events and in 36 B. C. it was destroyed by the Romans.

Traditions

• The municipality of Tripi consists of the village centre and three hamlets, called Campogrande, Casale and San Cono. Important monuments are the imposing main church, devoted to the patron saint St. Vincent martyr coming from Spain and whose recurrence is solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday of September. On that occasion the statue of the saint is shouldered through the village streets followed by lots of devoted people and the village band.

Gastronomy• The gastronomic tradition of Tripi

is mainly based on few local natural products of agriculture and sheep farming, such as ricotta cheese, which can be eaten as soon as it is produced or after it has been baked and grated on a tasty dish of home made macaroni. If you go to Tripi you must taste its typical cheeses, the “provola”, the “tuma” and the “pecorino” ( ship’s milk cheese), which are still produced with ancient methods. After cheese, meat plays an important role in the kitchen and it comes from local livestock. In many houses women still bake bread for their families and make macaroni. Typical sweets are the so called “cuddure”, a kind of soft shortcrust pastry biscuits, which you can find during the whole year, even if they are typical Easter cakes.