It's history is in its name. "Castiglione" means Castle of the Lion, in a position dominating the Alcantara Valley. As far back as 730 b.c., the Greeks had built a lookout tower on the great sandstone rock, and had fortified it in order to control what was then the only existing approach road to the interior of Sicily. Two hundred and thirty-four years later, exiles from Naxos built a city which was destroyed by Dionysus, the tyrant from Syracusa. Then the Romans came into the area, and built bridges, and later the Arabs, who revolutionised irrigation systems to the point that 

they bred crocodiles in the Alcantara. They were followed by the Normans, the Swabians, and Ruggero di Lauria, under whom Castiglione became a royal seat.All of them left something of their own culture behind. The city prospered: the Castle was enriched with new fortifications, churches and palaces were erected thanks to the wealth which came from the cultivation and processing of linen and hazel nuts. Situated in the area around Castiglione is one of the most extraordinary monuments of nature: the Gorge of the Alcantara river. You can catch a glimpse of it from behind the Castle, but you have to go down to the Valley to admire it fully, and you can fish so much trout in the river that you become the talk of the town in the city square. As well as being a wine-producing area Castiglione is a place of great culinary traditions. Amongst its specialities are i tagghiarini (home-made pasta) served with nettles, and wild rabbit, sausages, various cheeses and pickles.