The group's main goal is what Padova calls "preservation of cultural heritage," which he breaks down into monument restoration, museum financing, and promotion of Sicily's gastronomic past and future. In a larger sense, they're also trying to put the idea of what Sicily is—the Sicilian brand, if you will—back on track.

"The future of our territory depends on how we care for our sites and our arts," Padova says. "The bottom line is to make people more conscious of their identity without losing it on the way."

This could sound like some serious smoke-blowing, but the weight of its all-star founders is already seeing an effect. Having existed only for a few months, the group is already both wooing and being wooed by corporations and large foundations that are interested in supporting their efforts.

At the very least, Padova, an unmarried 28-year old, has his heart in the right place; after ten years working in Milan for an advertising agency, he has moved back to Ispica, where young, single people with a full set of teeth are rare birds.

As they are elsewhere in Sicily, people in Ispica can seem at a loss at how to deal with technology. At one of Ispica's cafés, where ten people constitute a crowd, each person could watch a different flat screen television. Yet outside the café tiny, old, three-wheeled Vespa "trucks" putter by at a frequency that makes you wonder if everybody in town owns one. They seem custom-made for a town like this, and it seems hard to imagine a more practical vehicle here.

"Almost every producer's activity here has a huge history and is always linked to the story of Sicily," says Padova, who also helps run the business end of his family's olive oil and almond farms outside of Ispica. "The future of this land is not linked to [large-scale] industrial development."

How are they penning the story? They're mixing hard work and leveraging their star power: Padova and chocolatier Ruta are courting the corporate funding that they will use to start building restoration projects (including that of a church façade in Val di Noto), the photographer and the philosopher are collaborating on a book about the Val di Noto region, and the chef, Ciccio Sultano, who is a bit of a media darling in the culinary world, is promoting innovative Sicilian cuisine with a huge emphasis on local goods.

And they're spreading the word. "Our olive oil products sold in the US and other countries bear a sticker on that says, 'This purchase supports the preservation of Sicilian arts and sites [which are] part of the world heritage list,' " Padova says, noting that items from Ruta's Dolceria Bonajuto will carry the same labels in the near future.

Joe Ray is a food and travel writer and photographer based in Paris. His published work and contact information can be found on his website. He also blogs with French food critic Francois Simon at Simon Says! along with The Boston Globe’s travel blog, GlobeTrotting.