Palermo

Take a walk with us down the streets of Palermo. We spent a beautiful day there on our trip to Sicily just wandering around the streets, shopping, marveling at statues and eating (of course). Here are a few photos so you can take in i sapori di Palermo!

Kristen described the city as "gritty", which I think is a perfect word for Palermo. A bit dirty and worn out on the surface, the city has a beautiful charm nonetheless. Built almost 3,000 years ago by the Phoenicians, it has changed hands many times as a plethora of ancient civilizations conquered Sicily.

Like across the rest of Sicily, each of these civilizations made their own mark on the city of Palermo. As a result the architecture spans the ages...a really great place to study historic architectural styles. The streets didn't feel like other Italian cities that we've visited. The multi-cultural influences in Palermo make the city quite unique, with Gothic and Baroque buildings mixed in with Roman and Greek statues, and Moroccan-style souks on narrow marble-stoned streets.


Over the ages Palermo has been one of the world's most important cities. It was once the largest city in the Arab world. During the 13th Century, it was considered the most important city in Europe. Situated at the crossroads of the major sea trade routes between Asia, Africa and Europe, Palermo was in the perfect location for commerce. At one time, most of the world's coffee, salt and silk likely passed through this small port city.

Back to the food for a minute...after all it was one of the best things about Sicily (and Palermo). Kristen already talked about the restaurants, but the food in the street markets was amazing too! Walking in the street markets in Palermo really reminded of the time I spent in the souks of Marrakech, Morocco. The market we liked best was in one of the supposedly worst parts of the city. It was kind of dirty, even by Palermo standards, and had an edgy feel on the dark streets with graffiti on the building walls. But just look at all the goodies that you could buy! We bought some famous Sicilian sun-dried tomatoes (the tomatoes in Sicily are unlike any you've ever eaten before), ground pistachios (a staple in many dishes) and some bottarga di tonno (salted and dried tuna roe).

Two words of caution about Palermo if you go. First, DON'T DRIVE in the city!! We can't stress this enough!! It was complete chaos. Worst place in the world we've driven (yes...worse than NJ/NY by a mile), maybe with the exception of the Dominican Republic (a story for another time). If you do make the mistake of driving into city center, parking is quite an experience. Not just because spots are nearly impossible to find, but because you'll have to pay the parking pizzo. This would be your friendly "protection" money paid to some random guy working on the street who, we assume, is in the Mafia. On a positive note, the pizzo was less expensive than the parking meters (he took the money "instead" of us putting it in a meter...and to our pleasant surprise our car wasn't towed or ticketed).

The second word of caution about visiting Palermo: you will EAT TOO MUCH!