Turin Who? This Small Sicilian Town Still Proudly Calls Itself the First Capital of Italy

For the 10,000 residents of Salemi, a frozen-in-time town in the Sicilian province of Trapani, being neighborly is the rule of the day. An hour’s drive from Palermo, the town is quiet and much of its architecture is crumbling. Public transportation is scant to nonexistent and the streets are near-empty.

It’s a surprising scene for a place that prides itself on once being the capital of Italy. For 24 hours, anyway.

Turin, of course, was the official first capital o