The Seven Stones Path

The Seven Stones Path connects the villages of Pietrapertosa and Castelmezzano and is the enhancement of an ancient sheep track, a farm track used for transhumance, about 2 km long and at varying altitudes. It is an evocative and mysterious route, where visitors encounter stories from oral tradition, handed down through the generations, based on the text Vito ballava con le streghe (Vito danced with the witches) by Mimmo Sammartino (Sellerio editore Palermo).

Nature provides the backdrop to the narrative, which takes shape in sound, visual and evocative forms. It is suggestion engraved in stone. The stones come to life, unwitting narrators of ancient stories and magic that has never been dormant.
The seven stages are emblematic of the words that characterise them: destinies, enchantment, spells, witches, flight, dance and delirium. It is in the central stage - witches - that visitors are presented with the entire story, through scenographic and sound elements.

Along the old sheep track, visitors can enjoy three parallel routes:
The literary walk
Enjoying the landscape and the themed route accompanied by narrative fragments taken from “Vito ballava con le streghe” (Vito danced with the witches);

The “visionary” route
Discovering an itinerary divided into seven artistic installations that reflect shared popular imagery;

The landscape itinerary
Aimed at discovering the peculiarities of the natural landscape along a route divided into rest areas located between the different stages.

'There is a story of stone that is two thousand metres long and even more.
It is a story of tales and visions.
Of signs imprinted along the path of the seven stones.
It tells of those women, the masciare, who anointed themselves with enchanted oil
collected from the hollow of an olive tree.
It tells of when they crossed the night on the backs of white dogs.
It tells of Vito, the farmer, and of when, caught up in a love spell, he danced with the witches."
Mimmo Sammartino