Italian-American pop icon Madonna has
marked her 64th and her son Rocco Ritchie's 22nd birthdays in
Sicily's famed Val di Noto.
She chose the town of Pachino near Siracusa for feting the
birthday of the son she had with British film director Guy
Ritchie on August 11, 2000.
She is currently celebrating her own birthday in another nearby
Baroque jewel, the lavish palazzo Castelluccio at Noto.
The singer was born Madonna Louise Ciccone on August 16, 1958,
in Bay City, Michigan, to Catholic parents Madonna Louise (née
Fortin) and Silvio Anthony "Tony" Ciccone.
Her father's parents were Italian emigrants from Pacentro near
L'Aquila in Abruzzo while her mother was of French-Canadian
descent.
In June 2002, UNESCO inscribed the towns of the Val di Noto on
the World Heritage List as "representing the culmination and
final flowering of Baroque art in Europe".
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