Palermo...not a lot to say about it. I would advise to skip it all together when in Sicily. Get a rental car and head to Scopello or other coastal beach towns or to wine country. If you really want to go to Palermo, I suggest spending one night there maximum as there aren't a plethora of tourist sights, and it isn't the most pleasant city to walk around. However, the grit has some appeal, with cool streets, a nice Marina, and perhaps the most bizarre tourist experience in the world.
The day at Mondello was a relaxing and fitting end to the weekend full of beaches, sun, pasta, wine and dead people! Scopello being one of the most beautiful places on earth, and Palermo being one of the dirtiest! Next time I'll head back to the airport directly from Scopello!
When we arrived we went to the old market area, the Vucciria, which is the oldest market in the city. There are some great winding roads, but the locals would confess the market is unfortunately not what it was even five years ago. There is tons of character so hopefully it will get turned around in due time. One of the cool spots that is there is this great bar that was serving the local workers (and me).
We then continued to walk around by this historic square (Pretoria) near the four corners area that, due to people defacing it, is blocked off from public access. It is sad and would be like the Spanish steps in Rome being closed off from the public.
We then went to the Capuchin catacombs, probably the craziest thing I have ever seen! Holding a couple hundred bodies that were placed there during the late 1800s, it is quite a collection. They bodies were placed there by loved ones and several scientific methods were used to try and preserve the bodies. Some still had hair and eyeballs! If you click on the link above, you can see the best preserved body, a small girl who died at the age of two who looks like she could have died yesterday! We were expecting a few bodies, not hundreds!
After taking a nap at our hotel (which was very very nice), Puerta Felice, we headed out to dinner, cursing by the marina that is being refurbished at the moment but nonetheless was really nice with the sun setting on it.
This is the restaurant we ate at on one of the small roads in the old town. It was a very romantic ambiance and the food was great too. I don't remember the name unfortunately, but it was tiny and just down a side-road north quattro canti (four corners).
As we had exhausted our love of Palermo, the next day we went to Mondello, the beach suburb of Palermo. The beach was incredibly crowded but the water was really great and sand was fine and soft. The pic doesn't capture how crowded it was, but it was really relaxing and only a 12 euro cab from the old town!
Below are the storage huts that I imagine a lot of local families keep their paddles and inflatable ducks!
The day at Mondello was a relaxing and fitting end to the weekend full of beaches, sun, pasta, wine and dead people! Scopello being one of the most beautiful places on earth, and Palermo being one of the dirtiest! Next time I'll head back to the airport directly from Scopello!
Sicily is both geographically and historically the center of the Mediterranean and has been coveted, fought over and colonized for thousands of years. Sicily and especially Palermo, is a celebration of the greatest achievements of western civilization: the superbly well-preserved Greek temples of Segesta and the Valle dei Templi; the fortifications of Syracuse; the Norman Royal Palace and Palatine Chapel in Palermo and Monreale Cathedral; the gorgeous baroque masterpiece cities of Noto and Ragusa and Catania, and many others. The list is seemingly endless. I am A Sicilian American whose ancestors left our beloved homeland in the 1880’s. I have traveled to Sicily many time and found it to be a clean and enchanting heaven populated by fine, educated, intelligent, caring people. To state that Palermo, Sicily and her peoples live in filth and crime is blatantly racist and totally false. Sicily and Palermo have become one of the most popular tourist’s destinations in the world and people all over the world dream of visiting Sicily. But I am very leery when “Anglo” types like you visit Sicily bringing with them over three centuries of racist hatred and bigotry. A racist hatred so virulent and intense that the greatest debate in the United States Congress in 1910 was to deem Southern Italians especially Sicilians as “non-white” and we all now what that meant. A racist hatred so virulent that my ancestors only found racist hatred, bigotry, discrimination, racial segregation, and even racist mass lynching. A racist hatred that even today, Sicilian Americans still suffer tremendous racial discrimination, prejudice and defamation insidiously veiled in racist slurs and innuendo of your post. You are the end product, the horrible product, the venomous racist disease of all these years of racism gone totally out of control. Shame on you.
ReplyDeleteI visit family in Palermo once or twice a year, and I can say that the whole city is a mess, unfortunately. The maffia destroyed what once was a great city (and undeniably the somewhat corrupt government).
DeleteMike, sorry to hear that our blog post enraged you so much. It is obvious that something elsen has been boiling inside of you well beyond the post, which gives no hints of racism nor mention of crime. We didn't state that Palermo was dirty once in our post either. We actually talk about how charming our vist was, with nice streets, beaches and meals in pretty squares. Near the market, a owner of a nearby shop confessed it had become less spactular in the last 5 years, which you took completly out of context. Furthermore, the conclusion that we didn't like Palermo is "utterly false", we simply enjoyed (immensely enjoyed) outside of Palermo more than the city itself. Please find a basis in your argument as YOUR "hatred and bigotry" has clearly clouded your ability to reason - and go pick a fight with someone else. I suggest moving home and becoming mayor of Palermo and put your passion for Palermo to more productive use.
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