• In eastern Sicily, also Palazzolo Acreide ,near Syracuse, is worth a visit.This town is also in the Unesco world heritage list. In Palazzolo it is possible to visit the Casa-Museo “Antonino Uccello”. It’s a museum of sicilian popular traditions with a huge collection of tools, clothes and traditional objects. There is also a collection of handmade Christmas cribs figures. Every year a living crib is also organized in Palazzolo, often in the medieval castle quarter.

Christmas in Palazzolo Acreide (SR). From the typical products of the iblea pastry such as panettone, to the route of the cribs in the churches. Traditional ignition of the tallest tree in Sicily on the facade of the Basilica of San Sebastiano in Piazza del Popolo. The events start on December 8th with a big day dedicated to the Immaculate, in the afternoon the procession takes place.

During the days of celebration there is the representation of the “Living Nativity” in the San Michele district. In the characteristic setting the various moments of rural life have been reproduced, the works of the artisans, the crafts, the meeting places. And then the music with the pipers and tasting of typical products.

At the Museo del Presepe, an exhibition of numerous “Cribs of craftsmanship” by the Palazzolese decorator Giovanni Leone, inspired by the life of the Iblei countryside and often have Palazzolese buildings as their background. Also we can admire numerous artisanal cribs at the Antonino Uccello House-Museum.

The Giovanni Leone Nativity Museum was born from the taste of ethno-anthropological research and from the careful observations of the urban and landscape morphology of the places. His cognitive commitment did not resolve, in fact, in a pedantic plastic reconstruction of lost settlements, but he interpreted the deepest feeling of the populations that inhabited the Anapo Valley. Thus, with the taste of “capriccio”, he reconstructs the possible habitation of people who were and still breathe in the limestone stones of the Hyblaean territories. The Cribs of Giovanni Leone have been registered in the Register of Intangible Heritage of Local Interest (REIL) aimed at identifying, inventoried, safeguarding and promoting the Intangible Heritage of local interest in the territories, according to the principles established by UNESCO. The three cribs can be visited: in the Via Padre Giacinto, 30 – in the historic center of Palazzolo Acreide (behind the Basilica of San Sebastiano), contacting the Cultural Association “Icaro”.

Christmas markets
Local Ex Library, Portici of the municipal building, Municipal Hall: every weekend of December
Bonaiuto Caffè (Viale Dante): from 8 December Christmas markets every day from 8 to 20
Living Nativity in the District of San Michele on 25, 26.30 December 2018, 1, 6 January 2019
Living Nativity in the Mother Church on 25, 26.30 December 2018, 1, 6 January 2019