A town that has it's merda together

So we decided to not be total slugs today.......particularly because the weather was partially overcast after a lovely sunset yesterday.

So after breakfast and a post breakfast lounge we headed up to Castelbuono. We had heard there were yummy foods to be had.

Well we had to stop short of the actual town as a market was on and the street we had planned to park on was wall to wall stalls for a kilometre or so. They were selling everything, clothes, shoes, food, kitchen stuff. It was a happening street.

We had heard that Castelbuono had an interesting approach to the rubbish problem. They have donkeys wandering about with panniers that get filled by the men manning them. We watched with some interest as a bloke tried parking in a spot partially occupied by a rubbish donkey. He was laughingly calling for assistance when a donkey man told him to push off and leave the donkey be.

We, surprise...surprise, wandered around the town and eventually made it to a lovely square. The sun was shining, the tourists were spending, the chickens were tin and the old men were congregated. Interestingly the men were congregated at three separate 'clubs' . One did not have a name, the other was the Music Appreciation Circle, and the third, a Catholic Gentleman's Association. Still, they just watched the tourists spend money at the fancy pasticceria/caffee, which we did not disappoint them in. It was the world famous Fiasconaro and we bought some manna stuff as well as some cannolli.

Back up to the castle, which gives the town it's name. The place is not really a castle but a rich man's house, though it started as a tower on the top of a hill in the 13th century. In the 1920s it was purchased by the town council with some rate payers helping out. It is now a museum/art gallery.

The Sant'Anna chapel was very interesting, and we were glad the skull was not on display.

Anyway we dropped into another church, 15th century and quite Byzantine. Chiesa Matrice Vecchia

Then it was time for lunch.....a very ante pasta, followed by pork. Chops with wild mushrooms for me, loin with pistachio and manna crust for Marjan.  Lovely old place and a beautiful meal.

We finished off with our last Sicilan ice cream near Torre dell'Orologio and that was us for the day. A walk back to the car, discussing how this town has got itself organised. No rubbish on the streets, yay donkeys! The blokes hanging around are older and associated with clubs, the council owns several of the tourist attractions, they have a water dispensing machine for everybody so they don't have to buy bottled and finally as we walked out three blokes and a truck tidying up after the market.......No merda in Castelbuono.