Cefalu Travel Guide
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81km (50 miles) E of Palermo, 38km (24 miles) NE of Termini Imerese, 170km (106 miles) W of Messina
The major destination along the Tyrrhenian coast, the former fishing village of Cefalù has grown into one of northern Sicily's premier stopovers. It hardly rivals Taormina in appeal, but it's trying. The town was captured in the Oscar-winning film Cinema Paradiso.
You can tour Cefalù in half a day and spend the rest of your time enjoying its beach. The town is not only in possession of a great sandy beach; it's also blessed with a Romanesque cathedral and a museum that houses Antonello da Messina's masterpiece Portrait of an Unknown Man.
Anchored between the sea and a craggy limestone promontory, Cefalù is a town of narrow medieval streets, small squares, and historic sights. Towering 278m (912 ft.) above the town is La Rocca, a massive and much-photographed crag. The Greeks thought it evoked a head, so they named the village Kephalos, which in time became Cefalù.
Known to be inhabited since the 9th century B.C., Cefalù was founded by the Sikels. By the 5th century B.C., it had become the fortified western outpost of Imera. The Byzantine era saw Cefalù thriving as the seat of a Greek bishop. But Saracen raids in the 8th century drove its residents away from the sea to seek refuge on top of La Rocca. Cowering in fear, the inhabitants didn't descend again until 1131, when Roger II ordered that the town be reconstructed along with his grand design for a cathedral.
