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The Lupo'S Lodgin
This is what tells of Bronte the French geographer of the XIX century Eliseo Reclus, that visited Sicily and Etna in 1865, in his travel relation "Sicily and Etna’s eruption of 1865":
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«Bronte, where you arrive after a painful crossing of the lava, still has, and justly, the name of a Cyclop, son of the Titans that fabricated thunderbolts.
Peaks of lava are nearby suspended everywhere, and on the slope of Etna opens a very long gorge which looks like the bed already prepared for the avalanche of magma that from a moment to another can fall over Bronte.
In spite of the treats that the volcano unceasingly put over the city, this is however growing, florid and important; possesses a big college, dome shaped churches, shops of exquisite wines that in commerce pretend to be Marsala.
But the travelers cannot find there other than miserable lodging. Being uncertain between two inns, one filthier than the other, I resigned myself to enter in the '"Osteria del Lupo", attracted by the distich written on the sign: "Ospite, non temer di lupo il tetto:
trovi senza periglio agio e ricetto."
("Guest, do not fear the wolf's roof
find here, with no risk, the comfort") For my bad luck, later I realized that these verses were non other than a barbaric irony, I was treated truly with the same garb with which wolves treat lambs». |
Don't be afraid, friends of Bronte! The Osteria or Inn, of the Lupo Brothers, does not exist any longer! The reception reserved to Eliseo Reclus, if true, regards times now forgotten: the 1865, three years later the bloody "Facts of Bronte" (during which, in the night of the 2 August of 1860, the inn was looted and burned down). Today certainly Bronte's hotels do not excel for beds availability but the two that we have give an acceptable reception particularly clean and above all, offer great tranquility and delightful landscapes. One of them, The Park of Etna, is located in the high part of the town and dominates the Etna' valley; the hotel-restaurant "La Fucina del Vulcano", recently constructed, has the happy situation to be placed in the middle of the very beautiful Difesa Valley, almost at the feet of Mont Etna and to the edge of its forest; the other one, La Cascina, is located in the low part of the area, among the olive groves of district Cuntarati, alongside Masseria Lombardo that contains the Museum of the ancient peasant civilization. An other hotel is being built in the valley of the Difesa district. There are not yet present the private reception structures (the so called services of "Bed and Breakfast") that could favor an important tourist increment and the economic improvement of brontese families. |
Located between the western slopes of the volcano Etna covered by lava and woods, dominates the high valley of the Simeto river and extends itself, going down sweetly, from the slopes of the volcano to the banks of the river, where the last rivulets of lava has been corroded by the water marking the border of the municipal district.
