Do you love the excitement and adrenalin associated with following forensic, historical adventures? If so, then you will love the latest gory travel tour: “A Mafia Tour of Sicily. In Italy the Mafia is known as the Cosa Nostra and the minions of the organization are known as “Pizzo” This violent racketeering criminal organization and its menacing “pizzo” has been extorting businesses in Italy for years.
The tour is offered by Addiopizzo Travel, which is also an anti-Mafia group that has managed to free over 800 businesses from the influence of the mafia and had them sign an anti-extortion charter. In Sicily you will now see stickers in many restaurant windows that say “goodbye pizzo.” This means the business will not tolerate attempts at extortion or cooperate with the mafia.
The tour offers a visit to Corleone, which is a property once owned by the mafia. In this region the state has confiscated roughly 8,000 properties from the organization. Anti-Mafia groups now run the extorted vineyards, farms and houses. A well-known farm of this type is the Agriruismo Terre di Corleone, which is situated in the hills. The town of Corleone, which used to be run by two Mafia Bosses in the 80s and 90s is now run by an anti-Mafia cooperative called Libera Terra.
The tour also includes a sampling of many delicious regional dishes such as meatballs in a sweet and sour sauce and eggplant stew. You can drink a wine called “Centopassi” which was a brand started by Mafia Boss Giovanni Brusca who was rumored to have committed about two hundred murders including the strangling of a boy and the dissolving of his body in a vat of acid.
The history of Sicily is dark and violent but the food and wine is very tasty. You can even stay overnight in the stables at Agriturismo Terre di Corleone where a Mafia Boss named Riina, “The Beast” once kept his animals and where he once ordered the deaths of over forty people. If you want a scary night’s sleep in what is truly a probably a haunted place then ask to go on the Mafia tour and stay overnight at the Agriturismo Terre di Corleone. You might feel slightly comforted to know that the money you put into this trip is being funneled into a good cause that prevents even more racketeering in Sicily and that also will be offering more tours celebrating the cultural and environmental marvels of this part of Italy. Sweet dreams!