This route is an ancient pilgrimage across Sicily, from Palermo south to Agrigento. It’s 130 miles give or take(I don’t care what the guide book says) and we did it over the course of five days. I walked with my hiking partner/wife, QB/Sara. The route basically goes from cathedral to cathedral and stopping at churches along the way is encouraged? Neither one of us is all that religious but nobody checks so we’re good to go. It’s both of our first “Camino” style walk. Anyway, here’s my account of the MVF.
Day 1…..5/23/25…..20.3 miles
Palermo to Santa Cristina Gela
Last night Sara and I flew from Porto, Portugal to Palermo, Italy. From the airport we took a shared taxi 45 mins for 8€ pp. The owner of the AirB+B tried to tell us that at 8:30 pm you won’t be able to get public transportation and she would send us a private car for 55€. I don’t think so lady; there were plenty of buses, cabs, and trains.
Our AirB+B was less than a mile from the Cathedral where this whole thing starts but first we had to run one little errand which added a couple miles. We went to the Casa D’Amici hostel where they have the passports. This is my first Camino so I didn’t know this. You take your passport with you to the different cathedrals along the route and they stamp it-you know, for proof.
At the Cathedral of Palermo we toured the ancient building from the 1100’s and went to get the MVF guidebook. The Liberia Paoline Bookstore across from the Cathedral is the only place that has it. Just go in there and tell one of the nuns what you’re up to and she’ll help you out.
Now we were on our way. First of all, almost all pavement all day. It was a few miles of walking through the city of Palermo, it wasn’t pretty, and then we started to climb. We walked into Monreale and did a lap around town before getting our passports stamped in a massive cathedral.
From Monreale we followed busy roads down and then back up to Altofonte where we got lunch and met 5 other pilgrims or pellegrinos. I guess we’re in the bubble. I would say QB and I are doing this route more of a cultural experience since neither one of us is religious so I’m not super comfortable calling myself a pilgrim. Pellegrino is cool though, I like that. Dish of delicious lasagna for lunch, I like that too. Then we assaulted some stairs and walked roads the rest of the day into Santa Cristina Gela.
SCG is a little town. We rented a room for the night from this woman Sylvana for 50€. You really can’t wild camp in Sicily so I guess we’re renting rooms every night? We’ll see. So far it’s quite luxurious opposed to thru hiking. Dinner was bruschetta and heart shaped pistachio raviolis.
Day 2…..5/24/25…..31.3 miles
Santa Cristina Gela to Prizzi
We dropped the keys off to Franco at the bakery and grabbed a couple pastries for breakfast. The beginning of the day brought us up out of town on some trails with views of Lake Piana. We then dropped down on an overgrown trail that had some tall hay or wildflowers or just general vegetation. Whatever it is, I’m allergic to this stuff and it was all over my arms and legs. I was covered in hives and itchy so I took a Benadryl and survived. As of now anyway.
The route passes through the tiny town of Tagliavia where we stopped to check out the church and get our passports stamped and enjoy a quick espresso. South of Tagliavia, there was a little detour to Gole da Drago that I really wanted to see so we went out and back about a mile each way to see this series of waterfalls. They were cool, if not a bit tricky to find, and were helpful washing some of that stuff off my arms and legs.
Next up, Corleone, of “The Godfather” fame. It seemed pretty quiet there this afternoon and the churches are closed on Saturday so we got our passports stamped at a local pizzeria instead. After splitting a pizza with anchovies, QB and I were on our way. *a bird shit on me in Corleone. QB had a bird shit on her in Lisbon last week so I guess we’re even.
Because you can’t camp along this trail and can really only stay in town you can’t really fly by the seat of your pants. Most pellegrinos walk from SCG to Corleone and stop for the night. Since we only gave ourselves five days total we have to push another 12 miles or so to Prizzi. Typical.
The rest of the afternoon was rolling Sicilian countryside to the town of Prizzi up high on a hill. We stayed at a hostel here where we met 2 other Pelegrinos, Daniel and Stella from southern Italy. Dinner was rigatoni licorice and spaghetti carbonara and ate at a nearby Trattoria.
Day 3……5/25/25…..25.2 miles
Prizzi to San Giovanni Gemini
Tip-toed out of the hostel this morning so not to wake our Italian friends who were still sleeping. On our way out of town grabbed some ricotta filled pastries for our morning walk.
Another beautiful day in Sicily. The path this morning was mostly dirt roads that brought us into a couple different forests, which we haven’t seen too much of out here. We caught up to an Australian couple Bob and Faye, veterans of Caminos all over Europe. They walked into Castronova de Sicilia with us and we found a spot for lunch that was open on Sunday. Pizza/calzone/rice balls or arancini if you were wondering. Castronovo is a delightful looking town carved right into the side of a mountain.
QB(or Regina B in Italian) and I walked another 8 or 9 miles this afternoon into San Giovanni Gemini. It’s hard to tell specifically how far everything is until it’s done. The trail is well marked, however it’s in kilometers and even though the conversion to miles is no sweat, all the signs seem to be a bit off, as well as the guidebook. Anyway the walking was chill. There were some caves that are cool and Regina B stepped on a green snake, supposedly. According to her it slithered away unharmed.
We rented a room for the night in San Giovanni Gemini. It’s directly next to the town of Cammarata, high up on a mountain and a bit of a busier place than we’ve been used to. On the way back from dinner (pizza/panini’s/gelato) we saw a ton of young people walking around wearing the same leather jacket. I felt like there was a flash mob or something-it was very strange.
Day 4…..5/26/25…..27.3 miles
San Giovanni Gemini to Racalmuto
Hot one today! Blue skies and sunny. We got pastries at a bakery on the way out of town, pretty much our standard breakfast. Today we passed through towns about every five miles.
First was Acquaviva Platani, we met Senor Federico there and he told us about his 11 years in England and how he made enough money to build 3 houses in Sicily. He sent us on our way to Sutera where the ridge walking into town was one of the highlights of the trail for me. Sutera is this town built around a mountain sticking right out of the middle of it-I’ve never been to any place like it. We ate some baked ziti there for lunch and moved on.
As we were walking through Campofranco, Rosetta pulled us into her house. She and her husband Antonio filled our water bottles and stamped passports. (The people in Sicily have been wicked nice, always welcoming us and beeping and waving.) A few miles later we had to ford a knee deep river, not something I expected. We then crossed paths with multiple shepherds with their flocks and sheep dogs. These things are built to take down wolves. All they did was bark a little at us. We also got eyes on Mt. Etna today, far to the east, looks like it’s erupting.
Tonight we’re staying in Racalmulto. Got ourselves a nice room with a balcony and everything. Like I mentioned earlier, luxurious living for thruhikers. Pizza with sardines for dinner.
Day 5…..5/27/25…..26.2 miles
Racalmuto to Agrigento
Finito. Did the damn thing. It was another hot one out there today. I don’t think we realized how lucky we were the first three days that we had decent cloud cover, because today and yesterday were hot! With limited shade. Felt like the Mojave out there.
This morning our walk was uneventful until the trail was so overgrown that I couldn’t see my feet and suddenly fell in a hole up to my chest. WTF MVF? Lucky I didn’t get hurt. Besides that it was a lot of pavement and a handful of towns. The best part of the walking today brought us up on a ridge where we could see the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
In Joppolo Giancaxio I got a sausage and onion sub for lunch. I’m telling you, it was so good. Sara got a chicken sandwich and I just know she had food envy when she tried some of mine.
The last ten miles into Agrigento weren’t my favorite. We aimed for Cattedrale San Gerlando which we could see high up in the city on a hill. The destination of this whole pilgrimage. Overall I enjoyed this route and I definitely like Sicily. Walking into Agrigento was just kinda beat. We got to the church and they sent us around the corner to a museum to get our final stamp and ticket to tour the church. It was about to close for the day so we’ll go check it out tomorrow and celebrate with a victory pizza instead. Or pasta.
Endless P Summer 