Palermo is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is in the northwest of the island of Sicily, by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Alcamo is the fourth-largest town and commune of the Province of Trapani, Sicily, with a population of 44.925 inhabitants. It is on the borderline with the Metropolitan City of Palermo at a distance of about 50 kilometres from Palermo and Trapani.
Corleone is an Italian town and comune of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily.
Monreale is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily, Southern Italy. It is located on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro", a production area of orange, olive and almond trees, the produce of which is exported in large quantities. The town, which has a population of approximately 39,000, is about 7 kilometres inland (south) of Palermo, the regional capital.
Favara is a town and comune of south central Sicily (Italy), in the province of Agrigento, 8 kilometres (5 mi) north-east of Agrigento by road, with which it forms a conurbation.
Monreale Cathedral is a Catholic church in Monreale, Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily. One of the greatest existent examples of Norman architecture, it was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral as the seat of the diocese of Monreale, which was elevated to the Archdiocese of Monreale in 1183. Since 2015 it has been part of the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Antonino "Nino" Giuffrè is an Italian former mafioso who later became a justice collaborator. The head of the mandamento of Caccamo, he was the second-highest ranked member of Cosa Nostra. He became one of the most important Mafia turncoats, or pentito, after his arrest in April 2002, providing further information about its inner workings.
Isola delle Femmine is an Italian town in northwestern Sicily, administratively part of the Metropolitan City of Palermo.
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members who decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It is composed of representatives of a mandamento who are called capo mandamento or rappresentante. The Commission is not a central government of the Mafia, but a representative mechanism for consultation of independent Mafia families who decide by consensus. Its primary role is to keep the use of violence among families within limits tolerable to the public and political authorities.
Lercara Friddi is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about 45 kilometres (28 mi) southeast of Palermo.
Giuseppe Graviano is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one of the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He and his three siblings became members of the Sicilian Mafia Commission for the Brancaccio-Ciaculli mandamento, substituting Giuseppe Lucchese who was in prison.
The Greco Mafia family is historically one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily, from the late 19th century. The extended family ruled both in Ciaculli and Croceverde Giardini, two south-eastern outskirts of Palermo in the citrus growing area. Members of the family were important figures in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was the first ‘secretary’ of the Sicilian Mafia Commission, while one of his successors was Michele Greco, also known as Il Papa due to his ability to mediate between different Mafia families.
Gaspare Spatuzza is a Sicilian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He was an assassin for the brothers Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano who headed the Mafia family of Brancaccio. After the arrest of the Gravianos in January 1994, he apparently succeeded them as the regent of the Mafia family. He was arrested in 1997 and started to cooperate with the judicial authorities in 2008. In his testimony, he stated that media tycoon and then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi made a deal with the Sicilian Mafia in 1993 that put the country in the hands of Cosa Nostra.
Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi was a Roman Catholic priest in the rough Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio. He openly challenged the Sicilian Mafia who controlled the neighbourhood and was killed by them on his 56th birthday. His life story has been retold in a book, Pino Puglisi, il prete che fece tremare la mafia con un sorriso (2013), and portrayed in a film, Come Into the Light in 2005. He is the first person killed by the Mafia who has been beatified by the Catholic Church.
The via dei Georgofili bombing was a terrorist attack carried out by the Sicilian Mafia on 27 May 1993 outside the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy in retaliation for the arrest of Mafia boss Salvatore Riina.
Lupara bianca is a journalistic term for a Mafia murder done in such a way that the victim's body is never found.
The Admiral's Bridge is a medieval bridge of Palermo, located in Piazza Scaffa. It was built over the Oreto River during the era of the Norman Sicily by the ammiratus ammiratorum George of Antioch. In 2015, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a series of nine civil and religious structures inscribed as Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale.
The Maredolce Castle, also called Favara Palace, is a medieval building of Palermo. During the Siculo-Norman age it represented one of the "Solatii Regii", pleasure palaces, of the Kings of Sicily. It is located within Favara Park, in the neighbourhood of Brancaccio.
The Graviano family is a Sicilian Mafia clan, composed of four mafioso siblings: Benedetto, Filippo, Giuseppe and Nunzia. Their father was Michele Graviano, uomo d'onore that belonged to the Brancaccio Mafia family and was murdered by Gaetano Grado in 1982.
