About an hour’s drive from Caltavuturo, between the Madonie Regional Park and the coast, lies the charming village of Pollina, of Norman origin.

This hilltop town offers breathtaking panoramic views and preserves a history full of fascination, ranging from traces of ancient Greek civilisation to a romantic legend of passion and escape, in which a woman and a vizier chose to live their love story in these very lands.

Its commanding position provides a truly unique landscape: looking inland, you can admire the entire Madonie mountain range with its characteristic villages, including Castelbuono; on the opposite side, the view stretches out over the sea, and on the clearest days it is even possible to glimpse the Aeolian Islands.

Strolling through the narrow streets of the historic centre, visitors will come across fine examples of Romanesque architecture, such as the Church of San Giuliano, dedicated to the village’s patron saint. Of the Castle, documented as early as 1081, only the outer walls and the tower at the highest point of the hill remain visible today.

Around these ancient structures, the settlement gradually expanded over the following centuries. At the foot of the tower, in the 1970s, a theatre in Hellenistic style was built to strengthen the village’s symbolic connection to Magna Graecia.

The theatre is known as Pietrarosa, named after the distinctive stone used in its construction, which takes on soft pink hues at sunset.