More about Polizzi Generosa
A small farm on the edge of Polizzi Generosa.
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Polizzi Generosa is a hilltop town southeast of Palermo, in the Madonie mountains. No one is sure of its age, but it is believed to have existed when Sicily was a Greek colony about 700 years before Christ. In fact, one of the scholarly conjectures about the origin of the name “Polizzi “ is that it comes from the Greek and means Polis Isis, or the city of Isis, the Greek goddess. He do know that Generosa was appended in the 1200s, when Emperor Frederick II was impressed by his stay in the town.
Although its population has probably never been more than 6,000 and today has about 4,500, it has more than its share of the famous and near famous. Here are a few names: The grandfather of the successful American film director, Martin Scorsese, was born in Polizzi. Domenico Dolce, of the design team of Dolce and Gabbano was born and grew up in Polizzi. The grandparents of Vincent Schiavelli, the American film actor (Think One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and Ghosts) were immigrants to Brooklyn from Polizzi. Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, who was elected pope, but whose installation was blocked by the Austrian Emperor, grew up there. Giuseppe Anthony Borgese, a well-known writer of the early twentieth century hailed from Polizzi. One cannot write about Polizzi Generosa without mentioning St. Gandolfo di Binasco. He was born near Milan about 1200, called to the life of a friar by St. Francis of Assisi, and taught by St. Anthony of Padua. He was sent to Sicily to preach and, in spite of himself, became known as a miracle worker. To escape his unwanted fame and attention he retreated to Polizzi. He worked many healing miracles there before he died in 1260. He has never been officially declared a saint by the Catholic Church, but is revered in Polizzi. Over the centuries many men and women have carried the names Gandolfo and Gandolfa in his honor. (They are usually nicknamed Muffo and Muffa.) The town is still home in 2013 to many Russo Alesi families. While off the beaten tourist track in Sicily, it is well worth a visit, especially for anyone with Russo Alesi blood in their veins! |