The Sican Network: partners
Santo Stefano Quisquina
Or changing lives
focusing on beauty
Salvatore Ferlita started
with one car, now has 7 vehicles
and works with tourists and pilgrims
In love with his village and its centuries-old history, six years ago, in a time of difficulty, he decided to change his life; and thanks to another change of heart, that of a close friend, he decided to take over his license to rental with driver. Today he is 61 years old and is one of the most convinced partners of the Sican network; his business is also part of the Sicani Rural Quality District.
“For a lifetime,” says Salvatore Ferlita of Santo Stefano Quisquina – I worked in construction, but at some point things were no longer going my way, so when a friend of mine preferred to take a permanent job as a janitor, I thought of buying his license. Changing working life at age 55 was not a walk in the park, but I believed in my project: at first I had only one car, today I have seven vehicles. I work with tourists, but also with locals who for various reasons need to be accompanied around Sicily. Joining the Sicani Villages project for me was as natural as drinking a glass of water; I strongly believe in the power and strength of the network: ours is an area rich in history and traditions, and by teaming up all together, we have the chance to make it known more and more and to enhance its potential.”
And today, in fact, unlike in the past, more and more tourists are arriving in Santo Stefano Quisquina, inspired by the fascination of the story of Santa Rosalia who, as tradition has it, during her hermitage between 1150 and 1162 in a cave in the centuries-old Quisquina Forest, apparently went to pray in the shade of an oak tree that is now seven hundred years old. Then, there is the Sanctuary and the conventual environments inhabited by the congregation of hermits, whose story also fascinated Andrea Camilleri, who set one of his historical novels here, “The Sheep and the Shepherd.” And, then, the Andromeda Theater created by the visionary Quisquinese shepherd artist Lorenzo Reina, with its seats made of stone blocks, positioned in such a way as to reproduce the constellation of Andromeda: a magical place of great charm and poetry, absolutely not to be missed.
“There are not only tourists,” Ferlita says, “but also pilgrims. We also provide, in fact, assistance and, on request, luggage transport service to those who, traveling along the Via Francigena, prefer to travel lighter. “
In short, the Covid’s hard times seem to be definitely behind us and, comforted also by the forecasts of yet another boom in admissions to the island for the coming summer season, in Santo Stefano Quisquina there is a certain optimism.
“Among the upcoming events not to be missed,” says Ferlita, “in addition to the celebrations organized on the occasion of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the sacred cave and the epigraph of Santa Rosalia at Quisquina, in our village, on the weekend of May 18 and 19, the traditional Cheese Festival returns , dedicated to the enhancement of typical local products. On June 17 and 18, on the other hand, there will be a great feast in honor of St. Calogero with the traditional procession of the simulacrum carried on the shoulders of the Mother Church to the little church dedicated to the saint.”
Text by Editors
