Remote working and south working are two terms that are now particularly well-known to everyone, which have become protagonists of the everyday vocabulary given the complicated period. Lately these two phenomena have been associated by the media to Cianciana, a municipality near Agrigento, which has aroused the curiosity of journalists for the percentage of professionals who have chosen to work remotely from sunny and welcoming Sicily.

The Cianciana “phenomenon” is the result of a strategy aimed at reducing the progressive depopulation of the town, through a significant lowering of the prices of the buildings to renovate and an improvement of the internet network (optical fiber and free internet points), in order to make the location attractive for those who, by choice or necessity, work from home.

To date, Cianciana is the city of international remote workers, counting 17 different nationalities among workers who arrived from abroad only for vacation and then stayed to work from there. The particularity of this phenomenon has aroused, as already mentioned, the interest of the media, landing also on TG1 (an Italian newscast):

The dynamic nature of some types of profession and the increase in remote work following the health emergency have provided a big boost, underlining how the web can break down borders and shorten distances.

In addition to welcoming professionals from all over the world, Cianciana is also an important connection center for workers to and from Agrigento: the city is in fact one of the stops on our interregional routes.

The climate, the friendly people and the tranquility of Sicily do the rest, making this region, and the South in general, one of the most favorite areas for those who can work remotely.

Also this year comes back Le Vie dei Tesori, the Festival of the Cultural Heritage in Sicily, which enlivens the autumn by opening the doors of monuments, villas, churches and secret places for a feast of art and culture throughout Sicily.

Now at its fourteenth edition, Le Vie dei Tesori started on September 12th, opening the “treasures” of Bagheria, Sambuca di Sicilia, Trapani, Marsala, Mazara del Vallo, Messina and Caltanissetta, and then from October 2nd (until November 8th) the one of Palermo and of the other locations participating to the initiative this year. This year are also applied the same rules, with the possibility of purchasing entrance coupons online or in the appropriate stations, to be used immediately or during all weekends of the event.

Born in Palermo, Le Vie dei Tesori has immediately been a success thanks to the variety of places tha can be visited – very often hidden or little known – with guided tours every weekend and, in some specific cases, even during the week. Furthermore, given the particularly favorable weather in October, the festival represents an important moment for tourism in Sicily, given the opportunity to admire places that are difficult to open during the rest of the year or that are not easy to find in a travel guide. This year, among other things, Le Vie dei Tesori was even mentioned in the television channel of the French newspaper Le Figaro, which described the festival as the possibility of transforming Sicily into a real open-air museum , a “rebirth of the beauty” in this very particular year.

Thanks to this initiative, the inhabitants of Palermo were able to discover wonders that were previously hidden, such as the Hebrew miqveh in the streets of the city center, or the sumptuousness of La Stanza delle Meraviglie (the chamber of Wonders). In the same way, the other Sicilian cities participating in the festival were able to open their doors to places full of charm and curiosity, thus focusing the attention on the typical beauties of the place, often known only by the inhabitants of the neighboring areas.

Between trips out of towns, tastings, weekends among the most fascinating historic centers of Sicily, Le Vie dei Tesori helps to make the arrival of autumn less gray and gloomy, enticing Sicilians and lovers of Sicily to discover and rediscover it, uncovering its stories, traditions, colors and flavors.

The Baroque towns of South-Eastern Sicily, already reunited in the “GAL Terra Barocca”, will soon be united in a new single destination, at the conclusion of the “Enjoy Barocco – Sicilian Experience” project, which has now reached its final drafts.

The municipalities of Ragusa, Modica, Scicli, Ispica and Santa Croce Camerina, in fact, have joined this innovative tourist development masterplan, after joining the Local Action Group aimed at creating a bottom-up development strategy, focused on on the baroque architecture typical of the area, considered a World Heritage Site by Unesco. 

The new “Enjoy Barocco” tourist “maxi-destination” will aim to give further solidity to the realities of the five municipalities mentioned above, increasing their visibility and international feedback, transforming the area into a single and well-structured tourist center, encouraging in this way trips to Sicily.

This particular and unique area of Sicily had already been at the center of a great news with the inauguration this summer of a specific itinerary through the streets of the Baroque, dedicated to lovers of architecture, culture and more: the same territories, in fact, are also closely linked to the world of the literature, being the locations of the books and fiction of the Commissario Montalbano’ saga (Inspector Montalbano) by Andrea Camilleri.

The five municipalities of “Enjoy Barocco – Sicilian Experience” will also focus on other aspects that unite the area, which naturally cannot be overlooked: in fact, we are talking about the coasts holding blue flags, such as Ispica, Pozzallo and Marina di Ragusa, and of places with a deep and interesting food and wine culture, given the very large presence of vineyards, almond groves and excellent products typical of the area.

After Agrigento and its great numbers on tourism this summer, Sicily is increasing and structuring its offer based on the beauties and possibilities of the South-Eastern area, which are certainly not missing.

Summer is now over but, as predicted, many people have chosen to postpone their vacation period between September and October, because of the delay of most vacations during the summer season. As we had the opportunity to say at the beginning of June, in Italy and in Europe the entry rules for tourists and visitors in light of the safety regulations are constantly evolving, and there are some news for the autumn, useful to know for those who are planning a trip during these months.

In Italy the situation remains almost unchanged, citizens can move freely within the Italian territory except for Sardinia, which will require a mandatory registration until October 7th with a specific procedure for both tourists and Sardinians returning from other locations: in addition to registration, which can also take place in advance, an update on the state of health is also requested to be presented a couple of days before arrival.

The same thing is requested by Belgium, which is instead implementing a “traffic light” strategy in constant evolution, with the application of different protocols based on the origin place, if considered more or less at epidemiological risk: from the 2nd of September some Italian regions have been classified as “orange” requiring them to present the negative swab certification before entering the country.

France and Denmark, on the other hand, have loosen the restrictive measures undertaken during the summer period, now allowing citizens from the European Union to circulate freely with the exception of visitors from the United Kingdom, for which home isolation is still required, considering also the reintroduction in Great Britain of the quarantine for 14 days.

Going into the details of the situation in Sicily and, specifically, of the Palermo Airport, according to the ordinance n ° 34 of the 10th of September 2020, all passengers arriving from Greece, Spain, Malta, France and Croatia will have to undergo the rhinopharyngeal swab, within the special area set up in the airport structure itself (unless a swab was carried out within 72 hours before at a certified health facility), and register at special platforms in order to monitor any health updates. In addition, in a perspective of ensuring increased safety, a Gesap-Asp agreement was signed for swabs and serological tests on a voluntary basis for all the people that work at the airport.

In this autumn still “hot”, both for the climate and for the health emergency, a small positive note for our trips is introduced by Ryanair, which starting from the end of October will increase its Palermo-Memmingen routes and will offer its passengers discounted tariffs to increase travel to Europe.

“Mondi Imperfetti” (imperfect worlds) is the theme of the eleventh edition of “Una Marina di Libri“, now a historic annual appointment with independent publishers that for this year has been postponed to September, abandoning the classic early summer weekend due to the sanitary emergency. From 24 to 27 September, therefore, the new edition of the festival will be held at the Botanical Garden, with a theme particularly suitable, if not prophetic, for the period we are experiencing.

Imperfection as a pretext for enrichment, the beauty of differences and the possibilities for improvement that they offer are the fulcrum of the interventions and presentations that will be proposed to visitors, with great insight into dystopia, bringing up historical authors such as Orwell, Asimov and Bradbury and on linguistics, semiotics and communication, seen as an important tool for cultural evolution.

A big space will also be left to Sicilian authors, with the participation of Stefania Auci – author of the publishing success “I leoni di Sicilia” (The Lions of Sicily), a novel about the origins of the Florio dynasty – and the commemoration of Andrea Camilleri by the Sellerio publishing house.

For the first time, a space will be dedicated to books about music, with the section “Marina Rolls”, as well as the world of school and innovation, key topics of this season especially due to the link that has united the two aspects during the lockdown period.

Although the health emergency has put a strain on the organization of this new edition, the partnership with the University of Palermo and with other cities has made it possible to set up one of the most loved events of the city, held for four years at the Botanical Garden, a suggestive place particularly suitable for hosting the plastic-free structures of the participating publishers stands. Precisely following the safety rules, this year the number of visitors will be regulated in such a way as to allow a carefree fruition of the festival: the web will make it even easier to look at presentations and initiatives, as it already happend with “Smartina: a remote Marina di Libri”, a cycle of thematic seminars organized in June through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Although in a slightly different and “resized” form compared to other years, Una Marina di Libri offers independent literature to the inhabitants of Palermo again, inspiring them with always new inputs and offering them a way of coping with culture and initiative to an “imperfect period”.