Maybe more
than any other part of the trip I was excited for our time in Sicily, a wholly
new place within Italy to travel to. We would stay in Palermo, which is Sicily’s
capital, and from a tourism perspective probably the optimal location. Like the
rest of the trip, we put our fait in the AirBNB gods, and this time they paid
off handsomely. Our AirBNB was a two-level house that overlooked one of the
main bar-crawl areas of Palermo (a stretch of street we would soon become very
familiar with). The house itself had all the great trappings of a great AirBNB,
down to an espresso maker that was so authentic we, being simple Americans,
couldn’t get it to work.
Palermo
itself is a rustic town, a remaining element of an older Italy, a more untouched
one. They have a true ‘old city’, with two main thoroughfares running through
it, connecting a place known as the Four Corners. We walked along nearly all
stretches of this town, and very often, heading back to the four corners (about
a 5-10 min walk from the AIrBNB) was our reference point.
The four
corners is nicely adorned with churches or old buildings on each corner, with
statues on their facades, but these are older, dirtier, more worn, than similar
buildings in Rome. There is that ever-present earthiness to Palermo. But that’s
not to say that Palermo is defined by this lived-in-ness. There is still quite
a bit to see.
The main sites
are in the old city, being the Norman Castle and Palermo Cathedral. The Normal
Castle was nice, but the best parts probably were the mini-chapel with wall-to-ceiling
gold frescoes, and then the lush gardens. The Cathedral is large, and nice, but
compared to Rome it doesn’t really match.
The best
site is probably the Cathedral of Monreale, built up on the hill in a small
town. From there, you get a great view of Palermo down below, and the ranging
Sicilian wilderness. The Cathedral itself was a larger version of the Palace
Chapel, with even more stunning, bright gold frescoes depicting tons of
biblical events, and a giant gold fresco Jesus and Mary on the back wall. The
cathedral includes a walk up the bell tower and a path along the roof to get a
better birds eye view of Palermo, with the Meditteranean staple of red tile
roofs.
Palermo as
a walking town offered a lot of nice picture spots, be it open squares, fountains,
its beautiful Opera House, and so many other spots, both within and outside the
old city wall. Palermo also has a burgeoning bourgeois-inspired food and drink
scene, especially when you walk towards the waterfront in the old town. Stylish
restuarants and bars, serving up inspired cocktails and fare. There is a place
in Palermo for people who want to experience a bit of fanciness as well.
The food in
Palermo was consistently great. The best restaurant we went to was actually
about 30 minutes outside Palermo, in the neighboring small town of Bagheria.
The restaurant is I Pupi, which served an excellent seven-course tasting menu,
and was seamlessly able to adjust the courses to the dietary restrictions of the
group. Being in Sicily, the menu was fish forward, including an excellent first
course of a board with seven pieces of raw fish, each paired with their own
olive oil and dash of fancy salt. I initially thought the salt was an uneccesary
bit of flair, but those little salt pieces made the dish.
The other
great dishes included an amazing soup fish broth, a great dish with pasta made
out of tuna, and so much more. I Pupi also was great because it was relatively
cheap for that type of meal, given we had left the pohs Rome behind. The other
great meal was at one of the nicer spots in Palermo, after visiting a posh
cocktail bar, we went to dinner at Buatta. The décor was great, the menu was
excellent with great meats and fish dishes. They even had a Sicilian delight of
home-made cannoli as a dessert. My main at Buatta of a rabbit stew might have
had the best stew broth of any dish I’ve had in a long, long time. So clean, so
tasty, so sweet. Just awazing. More than anything, the food in Palermo was excellent.
The
nightlife in Palermo is largely contained a few specific streets and alleys of
the old town, most of them with strips of bars that pour out into the street.
It was an extremely communal atmosphere, made up of largely only locals – another
rnice change from Rome or even Positano. The bars right outsie the AirBNB
stayed open until about 2-3, and were packed throughout with people seemingly
just having a great time. We were there on Thursday Night and Friday Night, and
while Thursday Night was a good level of crowd, if anything Friday was too much.
Overall,
Palermo is a great city. Great to walk around in, with a gelato or cannoli shop
every few feet, and a certain energy that is so present in these secondary cities that aren't giant tourism hubs - similar to a Krakow or Split. The time in Palermo really cemented the trip. Overall, my view of Italy is that its underlying culture, and secondary cities, are incredible - be in Turin, or the Amalfi Coast, and now even Palermo.
