36 Best Sights in Central Sicily and the Mediterranean Coast, Sicily

A vast archaeological site in a remote location, Morgantina long provided rich pickings for illegal excavators: when Italian detectives raided an 18th-century villa in Enna belonging to a Sicilian art dealer, they discovered more than 30,000 ancient artifacts, most of them plundered from Morgantina. In 1986, American archaeologist Malcolm Bell, director of the University of Princeton’s excavations at Morgantina, established that the heads, hands, and feet of 6th-century BC Greek statues of goddesses from a private collection exhibited at the Getty museum outside of Los Angeles also derived from Morgantina. Identified as Demeter and Persephone, the statues were acroliths, with wooden bodies (long rotted away) and marble extremities. Returned to Sicily in 2009 after a lengthy legal battle, they are currently displayed at a small museum in the village of Aidone, beautifully lit and hauntingly "dressed" by Sicilian fashion designer Marella Ferrara.

Equally powerful is the so-called Aphrodite Getty, or Venus of Malibu, bought by the Getty in 1987 for $18 million on the basis of provenance documents that were later proved to have been forgeries. Returned to Sicily in 2011, the hefty maturity of her body, revealed by wind-blown drapery, has led most scholars to identify her as the Mother Goddess Demeter. Other objects returned from the Getty include the Eupolmos Silver, a set of ritual dining ware, and a head of Hades, identified as belonging to Morgantina when a student working in the site archives discovered a terra-cotta curl of blue-tinted "hair" and suspected that it belonged to a head on display in the Getty. When the curl was sent to the museum, it was found to be a perfect fit, and in 2016 the head was returned to Sicily.

Just a 20-minute drive from Enna, occupying a similarly dramatic crag-top, the town of Calascibetta is built atop a honeycomb of caves, most of them hidden from sight as they form the cellars of simple houses. Look closely, however, and you’ll spot some houses built straight into the rock, and keep an eye open if anyone opens a garage door as there may well be a cave inside. An entire network of these caves has been uncovered—and is evocatively floodlit at night—on Via Carcere. Head up to Piazza San Pietro, where there are the ruins of a Norman tower and panoramic views. Follow signs from Calascibetta to the “Villaggio Bizantino” and you’ll come to a stunning complex of caves overlooking a magnificent valley inhabited (and used as a cemetery) from ancient times until the Byzantine period, when some of the caves were turned into tiny churches. The caves continued to be used by shepherds as shelter for themselves and their flocks until relatively recently. Today, the villaggio is run by volunteers, who will organize guided tours and walks in English, and introduce you to some of the local shepherds and cheesemakers. It's always open Friday and Saturday, but reach out in advance if you want to visit another day. Not far from the villagio (and clearly signposted from Calascibetta), there is another series of caves (not guarded) at Realmese which you can scramble into and explore alone (but be careful as the rock is slippy). From here, a clearly marked track leads back to the village, a walk of just over 3 miles.

This husband-and-wife team makes artisanal cheese from the rare breed sheep that graze on their fields, and also grows and collects their own saffron to make a distinctive local cheese, Piacentino Ennese, flavored with saffron and studded with black peppercorns. If you want to watch the whole cheese-making process, you will need to book several days ahead and be prepared to rise well before dawn. Otherwise, give them a ring and pop by for a morning bowl of hot ricotta curds with fresh bread. Groups of nine or more can book a lunch or an aperitif.

The island’s first female winemaker, Emanuela Bonomo not only makes a fantastic passito dessert wine, but also had the vision to see that Pantelleria’s traditional gastronomic preserves made of capers, olives, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and oil that many islanders took for granted could find an international market. Her beautifully packaged preserves, pestos, and condiments inspired many islanders to revisit their own family’s traditions. Book ahead for a tour of the vineyard that includes visiting the Bonomo’s caper fields on Monte Gibele.

The twisted maze of narrow streets and tiny courtyards at the core of Mazara’s historical center is most interesting if you visit with a local guide. There is no danger, but as the distinction between what is a private courtyard and a public thoroughfare is blurred, it is far more comfortable, as a stranger, to be accompanied by a local (in addition, you will probably get to meet a few of the 4,000-strong Tunisian community who live here). Throughout the Kasbah (and indeed scattered all over the historic center) are a series of ceramic statues, some commissioned from local artists, others by schoolchildren, as an appealing initiative by the local administration. On Via Porta Palermo, students from the local art school were given free rein to decorate the metal doors of abandoned lock-ups. Tours are at their most evocative just before sunset, when men gather after a day’s work in little social clubs, children play in the street or go to the community play center, and the sound of a recorded muezzin calls the faithful to prayer.

According to legend, it was at the huge natural lake of Pergusa that the Greek goddess Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to live with him in hell. Ringed these days by a motor-racing track and overlooked by modern villas, a less evocative setting for the myth would be hard to imagine. Far more inspiring is the nearby hilltop known as Cozzo Matrice, riddled with caves that have niches carved into their walls for tombs, votive objects, and candles, with 360-degree views stretching as far as Mount Etna and the coast. One of the caves is known as the Grotta di Ade, or Cave of Hades, and would indeed be a far more resonant spot for his abduction of Persephone to the Underworld than the over-exploited lake.

Thought to be originally from the Byzantine period (although their exact history is still unknown), these caves carved out of stone can be found in and around town. They were originally used as burial sites, but then eventually became homes, although how or why is still a mystery. They were actually still inhabited up until the 1960s. Today the curious tiny houses are open to the public, and those closest to town have been turned into a museum by the local government. 

A remote and atmospheric archaeological site, Morgantina is quite beautiful, especially in spring when carpeted with wildflowers. In addition, it attracts few tourists, despite the fact that it hit the international headlines in the 1980s when it was discovered that several priceless but illegally excavated finds from the site had ended up in the Getty Museum in California. These have now been returned to Sicily and are on permanent exhibition in the small museum in nearby Aidone.

Here, Greeks and indigenous Sikels seem to have lived together in relative peace on a hill named Cittadella until 459 BC, when the Sikel leader Ducetius, determined to free Central Sicily of Greek influence, drove the Greeks out. By the following century, the Greeks had regained control of Sicily, and Syracuse, in the southeast, had become the most powerful city in the Mediterranean. Lying roughly halfway along the road that led from the east to the north coast of Sicily, Morgantina was rebuilt, this time on the hill now known as Serra Orlando. The ancient economy of Morgantina was founded on the cultivation of wheat, so it is little surprise that the dominant cults were those of Demeter, goddess of harvest and fertility, and her daughter Persephone. Even today, the site is surrounded by an ocean of wheat and cereal fields, and asphodels, the flower sacred to Persephone, are abundant.

In 211 BCE, the city was sacked by the Romans and handed as a war prize to Spanish mercenaries, who seem to have paid it little attention; according to the geographer Strabo, by the end of the following century, the city was nowhere to be seen. Excavations began in 1955, led by Princeton University with funding from the King and Queen of Sweden (who became regular summer visitors to the site).

Today you enter the site through what was once a well-to-do residential area where several fine mosaic floors, made with tiny tesserae, can be spotted in the foundations of large houses. Beyond, Plateia A, once the main shopping street, leads into the Agora, or official center of town, with a public fountain, several abandoned lava grain mills, an Archive office (where you can still see holes where documents were pegged to the wall), and a very ingenious system of interlocking terra-cotta water pipes, each with an inspection panel that could be easily lifted to clear blockages. Overlooking the Agora is a small but beautifully preserved theater  (where performances are still held in summer), and the stepped benches of the Ekklesiaterion, the meeting place of the town rulers. On the far side of the Agora, you can walk up through ancient kilns to the foundations of what was once the public granary—under Siracusan rule, all citizens had to surrender a quota of the grain they grew as tax. Above are the remains of two elegant private houses, each with a courtyard and mosaic floors.

In 2005, after four years of painstaking restoration in Rome (and several attempts to keep it there in the capital), the Dancing Satyr, the ancient Greek statue found by fishermen off the town's coast, found its permanent home here in the deconsecrated church of Sant’Egidio. Exquisitely lit and larger than life, it is a truly extraordinary work (despite missing both arms and a leg) caught mid-air, mid-dance in the throes of ecstasy, with the musculature and grace of movement associated nowadays with contemporary ballet. Scholars think it probably formed part of a group with other dancing Maenads, lost when the ship carrying them capsized in the Sicilian Channel. Ancient Greek bronze statues are extremely rare—only five have survived—as bronze was precious, and most were melted down. The satyr was created using the lost wax process, a technology designed to use as little bronze as possible: a clay model of the statue was made and fired, and when it cooled, it was covered with a layer of wax, followed by another layer of clay, this time with several holes. Then liquid bronze (heated to something like 1800°F) was poured through the holes. The melted wax then ran out, and the clay core turned to sand, leaving a bronze shell that would then have been polished. Other finds from under the sea are displayed in the museum, the most intriguing of which is the bronze foot of an elephant.

Ancient Akragas (the Greek name for Agrigento) was synonymous with decadence and excess, a lifestyle perfectly summed up by the philosopher Plato who remarked that its people "built as if they are going to live forever, and eat as if they will never eat again." This museum is testimony to the fact that the people of Akragas had the means to buy the very best, from the high quality of the red-figured Greek banqueting ware to scenes on some of the magnificent kraters (used for mixing wine and water) that evoke life at an ancient dinner party in vivid detail. Look out as well for the double-walled wine jar, with space between its two walls for snow to chill the wine.

A beautifully kept hill village of neat stone houses and cobbled streets, Sant'Angelo Muxara is where locals have collaborated to give travelers a firsthand look at rural traditions. Programs can be adapted to meet individual needs and interests, but highlights include cheese-making and tasting with a local shepherd, making bread or pizza in the wood-fired oven of the village’s ancient bakery, and visiting a herbalist in his remote cabin and learning how to gather edible wild greens. Guided walks can also be organized, led by an archaeological and nature guide, that take in ancient cave dwellings and tombs and the town’s small but very well-presented archaeological museum. Mindful walks with yoga and meditation are also on offer and highly recommended.

After the active volcanoes of Mount Etna and Stromboli, the tilted white "staircase" of the Scala dei Turchi cliff is the most stunning geological site in Sicily. Formed by eroded strata of pure white marl, with a silken gold sandy beach below, the cliff was allegedly named after the so-called Turkish (actually Saracen) pirates who plagued the Sicilian coast in the 16th century. The Scala and its beach are extraordinarily popular, so try if you can to visit in low season. The best access is from the signposted paid car park just to the south of the cliff (follow the sign to Majata Beach/Ingresso Scala dei Turchi).

An appealing village in two parts, Scauri's upper part is set around a church with a clock tower high above the sea and has a couple of good places to eat, a fishmonger, and a small grocery store as well as gorgeous views down to the sea from the wiggly maze of tiny streets behind the church. You could drive straight down to Scauri Porto, but if you like walking, leave the car in the car park and follow the main road down hill past La Nicchia restaurant, until you reach a minor side road called Via Sopra La Scala. This becomes a track that leads downhill through meadows to the intriguing remains of a Roman or Byzantine settlement with the ruins of lava-stone buildings scattered among prickly pears, wild grains, and capers. The path continues along the coast, passing a tiny rocky bay with a natural hot pool, before arriving at a tiny quayside where you’ll find the La Vela restaurant-bar and usually some kayaks to rent. From here a small road crosses a low headland to the rest of Scauri, with a handful of picturesque places to eat or rent boats set around a well-protected harbor. The wind-lashed west coast is not alluring, and in places has been marred with shoddy beach villas and hideous hotels, though anyone interested in archeology may want to see the Sesi Grande, a huge dammuso-like structure, with 11 spooky tunnels leading to 12 oval cells, created as a burial mound by the island’s prehistoric inhabitants.

This wonderful little winery is run with passion and energy by three young locals. Many wineries run tours, but few make the experience as personal and interesting as the Valle delle Ferle. Call ahead to book a personal tour of the vineyards, where Nero d’Avola and Frappato—the two grapes used to create Cerasuolo di Vittoria wine—are planted together, a traditional practice that has died out as newer joint plantings are not permitted. Guests are encouraged to taste blind, in order to demonstrate how the wines produced in these heavy clay hills are characterized by a far longer life and softer palette than those produced at lower elevations in the sandier soils closer to the sea. Tastings are accompanied by carefully selected local cheeses and salamis, so guests can experience the way the wines work with a salty or fresh cheese, or a fattier or chill-spiked salami. Tours also take in the cantina, where there is often a chance to taste immature wines straight from the tanks.

An excellent road with some fabulous coastal views, the Perimetrale encircles the entire island, although its most interesting stretch is along the east and south coasts between Cala Cinque Dente and Scauri. Although you could drive the entire stretch in far less than an hour, exploring all the little coves and villages and taking a few walks could easily keep you busy for several days.  

Cala Cinque Denti may literally mean "Bay of the Five Teeth", but opinions vary over which of the fearsome jagged rock formations inspired the name. The bay is most dramatically approached on foot from the signed car park at Punta Spadillo, from where a well-marked 30-minute path crosses a lunar landscape of black lava formations, scattered among which are doughnut-shaped gun emplacements dating back to World War II. A rocky branch of the path clambers down to the Laghetto Ondine, a natural pool fed by the sea, where you can swim under fabulous formations of lava. The main path continues along the clifftop, with more fantastic views, before climbing up to the top of Cala dei Cinque Denti. 

The next stop along the Perimetrale is the picturesque village of Gadir, set around a sheltered inlet. The harborside has been smartly decked for sunbathing, and there are ladders into the inlet, from which you can swim out into the cove. Right by the water are three tomb-shaped pits enclosing hot water springs.  Be warned that the temperature in one of them is dangerously hot so check before choosing which one to dunk yourself in. Following the path around the headland brings you to another (cool but protected) natural swimming pool, with two hot water springs behind it. 

Driving on, you come to photogenic Cala Levante and Cala Tramontana, twin bays divided by a small peninsula. There is good swimming and sunbathing from each, and a narrow road continues south along the coast to the island’s most famous rock formation, the Arco dell’Elefante, which is said to resemble an elephant dipping its trunk into the sea. Little paths across the rocks lead to the best places to access the sea for a swim.

Returning to the Perimetrale, carry on south until the sign to Martingana, where a very steep but asphalted road curves down to a pretty settlement of lava stone and white-domed dammusi. The road then becomes a track (drivable even in an ordinary car) leading to a small car park where a path leads to a cove (with more good swimming) and where you can sunbathe atop a solidified river of lava. The next bay, Balata dei Turchi, can be reached by several clearly marked footpaths or along a rough and steep road, best attempted only by an adventurous driver. The bay is jaw-droppingly beautiful on a calm sunny day, backed by cliffs stained ochre, china blue, and rose by volcanic minerals, but can be quite inhospitable and forbidding in strong winds. Punta Nikà, reached by a steep track a little farther along the Perimetrale, has similar polychrome cliff formations and offshore hot springs accessible only in calm seas. The path to them is not signposted, but they're fairly easy to find. Instead of going downhill to the main bay, look for a narrow path after the first house on the left (with contemporary metal gates). Follow this downhill and along the perimeter of the house’s garden. At the bottom of the garden, follow the white arrows (a bit faded) which will guide you down to a place where you can get into the sea. Don’t attempt this track unless you are a fit and experienced hiker.

The seemingly endless pristine sands of Torre Salsa, overlooked by cliffs of crystal selenite, are one of the best-kept secrets of coastal Sicily. This is in part because they are easily reached only in summer. The rest of the year underground springs make the several dirt tracks to the sands inaccessible, not only by car but also on foot except for those intrepid enough not to be put off by knee-deep mud. If the sea is calm, those prepared to paddle can usually walk along the sands from the beaches at either end: Bovo Marina to the north and Siculiana Marina to the south. Bring plenty to eat and drink, as there are no facilities. If approaching by car in the dry months, the easiest access is via the Pantano entrance towards the northern end of the reserve.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the twin hill towns of Cammerata and San Giovanni Gemini were famous throughout Sicily for their traveling ice cream and granita makers. The key to this ice-cream industry was the collection and preservation of snow, and a local family of ice-cream makers has restored several of the neviere, circular buildings resembling stone igloos, strewn over the forested slopes above the towns. Snow was shoveled into the neviere, trodden down until it turned to a thick layer of ice, then covered with a mat of rushes and straw before another layer of snow was added on top. Stored like this, the snow would keep frozen for months, and with the giant blocks of ice fetching the equivalent of €3,000, it had to be carefully guarded. The best way to see the neviere, learn how to make Sicilian granita, and visit a small private ice museum, is on a guided tour, which can include a lunch of cold cuts, local cheeses, and grilled meat and vegetables in a pretty family-run café.

Splendidly set on a promontory above a long stretch of cliff-backed sandy beach that runs right down to Scala Dei Turchi, Eraclea Minoa was once an ancient Greek city. Today, it's worth a visit to follow the path along the mostly buried circuit of its walls to get a sense of its strategic position above a fertile river valley that so appealed to the west coast Greeks. Located approximately halfway between Selinunte and Agrigento, it was founded by the former but fought over by both for most of the 5th century BC. Its fortune barely improved over the following centuries: Eraclea’s position on the west coast made it a desirable target for the armies of Carthage. Warfare, landslides, and a propensity to use ancient sites as quarries for ready-cut stone mean that little is left of the city today, and mistakes have been made in attempts to preserve what does remain.

The perspex roof added to the theater in the 1960s created warm, damp conditions perfect for the growth of abundant weeds that further damaged the stone, and a "temporary" roof erected in the early 2000s is still in place, but severely damaged. That said, the site is atmospheric, especially in spring when covered with wildflowers. There is also a small museum, with lots of finds relating to everyday life and death in the town, including a broken pot with the fragment of someone’s name written on the side, several votive statuettes, and some beautifully decorated lidded pots (pyxis) for jewels or cosmetics found in graves.

Denny Almanza took over his grandfather’s beekeeping farm just outside the little village of Madonna delle Grazie at the age of 15. Now he has hives in three zones—by the sea, above the Lago di Venere, and on Montagne Grande—and his bees produce five or six different kinds of honey, including prickly pear, clover, rosemary, heather, and mountain strawberry, that tend to sell out very quickly as he is the only person on the island to produce honey at any scale. 

Along with honey-making, Denny makes two dry white zibbibo wines and a passito, and produces truly excellent capers and oregano. Contact him beforehand to organize a wine tasting accompanied by local snacks such as caper and almond pesto and primosale cheese.

There is no general access to the 17th-century Benedictine convent of San Michele, currently inhabited by just four nuns, but if you ring the doorbell, the nuns will invite you into the lobby to buy the traditional cookies they make, including nutty muconetti, made of candied pumpkin and almonds. You place your money—and the nuns place your cookies—in a small revolving hatch originally designed so that unwanted babies could be left to the care of the nuns while maintaining the anonymity of the mother.

An exuberant welcome awaits you at Cantina Basile from winemaker Fabrizio and his English-speaking wife, Simona. Fabrizio is something of a wine rebel and innovator, and if anyone can convince you that sweet passito dessert wine works its magic better with well-chosen savory dishes than sweet, he will be the one to do it. Along with dry and sweet zibbibo wines, Fabrizio has planted cabernet franc, merlot, and syrah vines, and tastings give an opportunity to try some of his red wines. His whites include Sora Luna, 100% zibbibo grown in volcanic sandy soil where Fabrizio trains the vine leaves to grow big and act as shade to the grapes, and Trequartidiluna, where the wine must is left in oak for a month then aged in stainless steel for 10 years. Tasting include four or five wines, and are accompanied by foods chosen to demonstrate how differently the same wines can react to various different foods.

A 15-minute drive out of town will bring you to an olive plantation where soap is made from olive oil, continuing a tradition that stretches back for millennia. The fascinating, 50-minute tours in good English take you through the process of creating soap in this way and sketch out the history of soap manufacture. Following an introduction outside in the olive grove, the tour moves indoors where you can examine examples of different kinds of soap and even try your hand at making it. Afterward, there are opportunities to purchase the soap as well as other products made here. Call to book at least a day ahead.

Sperlinga's Norman castle is built from the foundations of a rocky outcrop. This kind of construction is rare, and since no one can quite figure out its exact origins, it gives the castle an aura of mystery. The castle was used as a cemetery by ancient Sicilians and later became a strategic defense point during the Byzantine period. The castle is at the highest part of the town and offers the best views of the rugged landscape and the rest of Sperlinga.

The sandy limestone from this quarry was much prized by ancient Greek builders. Lacking the fossilized shells abundant in much local stone, it was a stronger and more resistant construction material, and consequently a natural choice for the temples of Selinunte. Nevertheless, quarrying the stone in the huge discs required for temple columns was clearly no easy task, and as you wander through and above the gorge, you come across several broken discs, including one that was abandoned, split, before it had been fully removed from the bare rock. Even without the historical interest, this is a lovely place for a quiet stroll through olives, asphodel, and wildflowers, although in low season the site is unmanned and used by goatherds, so keep an eye out for untethered dogs.

Opposite the Museo del Satiro Danzante, the exuberant Baroque Jesuit College, with its portal framed by hefty male caryatids, was once the center of the Catholic Inquisition in town during the 18th century, charged with rooting out and punishing anything they deemed to be heresy. In 1824, the Jesuits clashed with Sicily’s Bourbon rulers, and were kicked out (probably missed by few). The damaged church of Sant’Ignazio next door is sometimes open; it's an evocative elliptical space, framed by red-gold sandstone and marble columns, and open to the sky. It is occasionally used for open-air concerts and exhibitions.

The city's Duomo was founded in 1093 by Sicily’s first Norman ruler, Roger I, who is depicted in relief above the main entrance on horseback trampling a turbanned Arab. It has an interior dominated by the huge marble tableau of the Transfiguration above the altar, revealed as if behind stucco curtains held back by cherubs, designed by the Palermitan Renaissance sculptor Antonello Gagini who is thought to have worked with Michelangelo in Rome. In the right transept is the fragment of a fresco of Christ Pantokrator dating back to the original Norman church and created by Greek Byzantine artists.

Park in the car park (waymarked 974 Favare Grande) just off the main inland road that leads from Tracino to Rekale. From here a really lovely path leads up to lush upland meadows (carpeted with wildflowers in spring) where favare, natural emissions of sulphurous steam, billow through crevices in the rock. If you want a longer walk, a path continues from here to the Grotta del Bagno Asciutto. Alternatively you could continue and climb one of Pantelleria’s two main peaks, Montagne Grande (1 hour, 40 minutes) or Monte Gibele (50 minutes).

Central Sicily is peppered with sulfur mines, most abandoned since the 1980s, and testaments to one of the most horrific aspects of Sicily’s history. Many children ended up working in the mines, most of them orphans, and if they died at work, no time was wasted in burying them. Conditions for men were hardly better—they worked naked underground in 98°F temperatures, and thousands died of respiratory diseases. The Floristella Mine near the town of Valguarnera Caropepe is overlooked by a splendid villa, built, with chilling insensitivity, as a summer residence by the mine’s noble owners, and later used as offices. A path leads down to the minehead where a winching mechanism lowered the lift to nine different levels, giving access to tunnels that stretched for over 3 miles. The small ovens where the extracted rock was heated for a week until liquid sulfur emerged are still evident, as are the tracks along which small trains hauled the rock to the surface.

The best way to explore the haunting history of Valguarnera is with local guide Paolo Bellone, who has interviewed many of the miners and their families. He will meet you at the mine, then take you to see the town’s powerful and moving private museum collections, which include documentary footage of the sulfur miners at work in the 1960s and rooms furnished to demonstrate everyday living conditions for the poor and the better-off in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Tours culminate with a visit to the Casa Museo, where one woman lived for her entire life, from her birth in 1911 until her death at the age of 89 in 2000, rarely throwing anything away, including her father’s Fascist party membership card and a 1922 water bill. The house has been kept as it was found, down to the garlic, herbs, and sugar in the ancient kitchen, cigarette butts in an ashtray, and a packet of American Black Jack chewing gum.

Easy to miss behind the Temple dei Dioscuri, the Giardino della Kolymbetra is a sunken garden created within what was once a huge "tank" excavated in the stone on the orders of the Tyrant Theron in 480 BC. In time, it was transformed into a lush garden, irrigated by a series of little channels, a technique brought to Sicily by the Arabs, who had learned this craft in the deserts of North Africa. Now planted with citrus, olive, almond, pistachio, pomegranate, and even banana trees, it forms a true oasis, where often the only sound is that of running water.

Housed in a restored palace that originally belonged to the Chiaramonte, one of the most powerful noble families in Sicily, this museum's architecture is a wonderful testimony to Sicily's complex history, an appealing fusion of Romanesque, Byzantine, Norman, Gothic, and Spanish. Highlights are the Gothic chapterhouse and the old defensive tower; the holes in the faded Byzantine frescoes of saints were created by American soldiers billeted here during World War II, who needed pegs to hang their kits on. Best of all is the Ethnographic collection on the top floor. Formed entirely of bits and pieces donated by locals at the end of the 20th century, it offers fascinating and often funny insights into everyday life, with exhibits ranging from recipe books to an ammunition belt modified for school exams so that cheat notes could be rolled up and stored in the bullet pockets.