Aidone

The village of Aidone (Aidungh Dadungh or in the dialect gallo-local italico; Aiduni Aidò or in the Sicilian) is located in Sicily, in one of the districts of cultural and naturalistic most interesting of the entire region. In its territory there are the important site-siculo greek-Hellenistic of Morgantina, the Castle of Pietratagliata Norman, and, a few kilometers, the Roman Villa of Piazza Armerina, Unesco site. The territory is rich in natural woods and artificial occupying the north west, and significant sites of naturalistic importance: with Piazza Armerina and Enna shares the Park of the chase and the border with the province of Catania is the lake of Ogliastro, a wetland of naturalistic interest.

In antiquity its etymology was traced immaginativamente Aidoneus to an epithet of God Ade-Plutone, that, after kidnapped Persephone at Lake Pergusa, would have been landed on the hill of Aidone. The legend gave origin to the wide diffusion of the cult of Demeter and Persephone throughout central Sicily. Other significant hypothesis is the origin of the term Arabic Ayn dun, in the meaning of "Higher Source", etymology that would be justified by the considerable presence of sources of water throughout the territory.

To Aidone, as in Piazza Armerina, Nicosia, San Fratello, Sperlinga, you speak a dialect that has always played a stranger to the ear of the Sicilians: a peculiar spoken of Lombard origin, which has its roots in the Norman conquest of Sicily. Over time these dialects were defined lombardo-Sicilians, gallo-novels, gallo-Sicilians and finally Gallo-italic of Sicily to distinguish them from the northern Gallo-Italic. In Aidone, in a particular way, already at the beginning of the last century the galloitalico was seen as an element of inferiority because in fact made it difficult relations with neighboring countries; since then the vernacular lived with a form sicilianizzata, that slowly has overwhelmed the ancient form; the aidonesi were bilingual for need and then trilingual with the affirmation of Italian. Today remained very few speakers and was born of the need to know it.

The village is full of significant points of interest such as the Castellaccio, which remained only ruins but from which it still has a beautiful panorama; the tower Adelasia and the Church of Santa Maria La Cava; the mother Church of San Lorenzo and the Archaeological Museum. The latter houses the archaeological finds in the nearby and very important Morgantina, ancient Greek city, one of the most interesting archaeological sites of the sicilian hinterland.