About thirty miles drive south from Palermo, on the road towards Corleone, the road makes a sharp right turn and an easily-missable side road to the left leads to the village of Ficuzza.
The centre of the village is dominated by a fine, handsome sandstone building – the Palazzina Reale built in 1803 by Venanzio Marvuglio as a hunting lodge for the Bourbon Kind Ferdinand III. The lodge is now open to the public and is visitable by a guided tour.
Behind the hunting lodge, extend the 4000 hectares of the Bosco della Ficuzza – one of the biggest and scientifically most interesting nature reserves of Southern Italy. The whole area is dominated by the magnificent massif of the Rocca Busambra, 16km long and which is well known among rock climbers in Sicily.
This splendid forest of oak, chestnut and ilex is one of the most extensive in Sicily and has some very pleasant walking. In particular walkers should look out for deer and the magnificent Golden Eagle which nests high above on the Rocca.
