The Phoenicians founded Palermo back in 734BC naming it Flower, aka Ziz. It seems fair that Modern Day Palermo, known for it’s onerous traffic, glorious art, still active Mafia and challenging piles of garbage should own such a name.
[pinit]
Marty, a firm believer in visiting Capital Cities, says you can’t gauge a country without visiting theirs. He dragged me to Zagreb, Croatia for which I am forever grateful and insisted on four days in Palermo. Bring it on!
In Palermo the African Influence is becoming stronger by the day. With the increasing Migrant population the mayor said in 2016 (from Daily Mail Australia Feb 13th 2017) –
‘Palermo is a Middle Eastern town in Europe. It is a mosaic city and we are happy about that.’
Palermo is exotic. It has palm trees, Africans and African Food and it’s inhabitants eat gelato in brioche, going about their lives with stoicism and bravado. Let’s just say that the Mafia is not as welcoming of the migrants as the Mayor. However, this is just background noise for a traveller and won’t affect your visit to Ziz.
Walking the streets is the best way to get to experience Ziz – the people, their markets, ruined palazzos, beautiful churches, art and food – it’s a crazy ride.
Walking down Via Vittorio Emanuelle, the street connecting Porta Felice – the City Gates at La Cala (the port) and Porta Nuova – the northern City Gates, is a good way to get connected to the city. There are diversions on either side of the street and indeed the landmark Quattro Canti is midway along it, but it seems that all roads lead back to Vittorio Emanuelle.
This photo taken one Sunday belies it’s normal pace.
Let’s start this street walk with two of my favourites photos.
Flea market vendor at Piazza Marina, near our Airbnb apartment in Via Allora in the old Arab district of La Kalsa. La Kalsa had a bad reputation once upon a time but it is gradually getting some TLC and we enjoyed living there.
And his dog. The park behind the fence is Giardino Garibaldi, home to a 150 year old weeping fig.
We’re close to the Port here so let’s divert to Porta Felice and La Cala.
Leaving Piazza Marina we cross over Via Vittorio Emanuele to the area known as Vucciria. Once a bustling market selling meat, fish and vegetables, it wasn’t flourishing at all when we went through. Good to see some of the buildings finally getting some love and attention though.
One market stall.
The Fontana del Garraffello built in 1591 survived WWII bombing, unlike the rest of the buildings in Piazza Caracciolo. Maybe it was divine intervention, because the waters of this fountain are said to have medicinal properties.
But before we go marketing lets sneak back to Via Vittorio for some gelato.
Mercato del Capo and Ballarò are still thriving markets.
Estratto di Pomodoro – The rich tomato paste that forms the taste of Sicilian Cooking.
A good price for Lumache Nostrane or Homegrown Snails.
Sale di Trapani – Salt from Trapani and Capers of all sizes.
Coffee in Sicily is always a pleasure. Las Vegas Cafe is squeezed between Mercato del Capo and law courts in Via Pagano Giovan Battista.
The markets have the freshest looking fish.
Quattro Canti or Four Corners is the central point of Palermo. The curved facades of each corner capture the sun as it progresses through the sky, earning it the name of Theatre of the Sun.
The below photo shows one quarter of the baroque square formally known as Piazza Vigliena. Other names for this corner are Quattro Canti, Four Corners or Theatre of the Sun.
Nearby in Piazza Pretoria is Fontana Pretoria . The Fountain and it’s attending sculptures are in a circular setting which can be walked around. It arrived in the City from Florence in 1574 and in the 18th and 19th Century became a symbol of the corrupt government, gaining the name Piazza della Vergogna” (Square of Shame). The nudity of the statues only compounded the shame.
Teatro Massimo is situated on Via Maqueda, the street that intersects on Via Vittorio Emanuele at Quattro Canti. When coming from Porta Felice end, turn right and walk along the pedestrianised street bordered by flower boxes toward the Theatre that first opened it’s doors in 1897 to accolades of the third biggest in Europe. In 1974 it closed it’s doors for quick renovations and opened it’s doors again 23 years later in 1997. That kind of thing happens in Sicily.
Street Band performing outside the Teatro. Not only did these guys play, but performed street theatre as well, darting away into the crowd when finished.
Palermo Cathedral lies just before our destination of Porta Nuova. It has had many renovations since it’s inception in 1185 and now sports a mix of styles, even spending time as a mosque in the 9th Century. An interesting place to visit.
Follow this map as a rough guide.
Thanks for reading and commenting – we really appreciate it. If you have a blog we would love you to add your travel post to the link below for Nancie’s Travel Photo Thursday which we co-host with Ruth from Tanama Tales and Rachel from Rachel’s Ruminations.
Escape to Cefalu
Once again, stunning photos! And this definitely looks like somewhere I want to go. Always adding places to the list – it’s ever growing! Thanks for sharing!
We found the coolest bar in Palermo – a lot of things there are hidden, and you stumble across the most amazing things once you work it out. Great pics!
Every time I go to Malta I think “I should really visit Sicily”, but the sea is too choppy for the Catamaran or something comes up and I never have. Hopefully next time 🙂
I’ve been thinking about visiting Malta Kat. I’d like to do a trip combining Italian Croatian Greek islands and Malta. Sounds huge though! I’ll check out your blog for Malta tips.
Hi, Jan! Your photos make me want to jump on a plane right this minute and wander those glorious cobblestone streets. I miss the European street performers. Where else can you listen to free music all day played by professionally trained musicians? Thanks for co-hosting this week. #TPTHursday
Palermo is quite an exciting/edgy place to visit but we enjoyed it. Living in an Airbnb apartment and shopping at the local supermarket was fun. It did seem to have a lively night life too.
Palermo looks a little rumble down and dirty! I’m not sure whether I would like to spend 4 days here. My husband is the opposite – he hates big cities and avoids them at all costs. Great photos as usual Jan.
Yes I don’t think you would like it Kathy. Sicily has had a chequered past, between the mafia and subsequent mismanagement of funds, but things are starting to get fixed up now in Palermo. It’s about time because most of the damage to buildings came from WWII.
I am more than sold on Palermo! It is Europe but still considered exotic. Those two first photos are great! I love how that dog is curled up in that little seat. Marty has a good eye for cities! #TPThursday
Palermo is quite gritty with lots of rundown buildings, but it grows on you and has lots of redeeming features.
Thanks for the behind the scenes look at the city. I love the sleeping dog. It looks like that has been his chair for a long time!
Yep he definitely owns that chair Sharon!
Many of the exotic places you write about remind me of James Bond movies. I can just picture him running through the alleys and ducking under washing and crashing into market stalls. A very interesting post, Jan.
Good One Pinky. I can picture that too, but he would need a luxurious hideaway or boat to escape to!
There’s so much to see in Palermo! I especially like the symmetrical buildings towering over the street leading to the port. That Panini di Las Vegas sign caught my eye, too. And I’m glad you had time to stop for gelato. There’s always time for gelato, isn’t there?
I really enjoyed your post about my city Jan, thanks for sharing your impressions. I hope you also got to visit some places like Cappella Palatina, Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, or the baroque churches like Chiesa del Gesù or Santa Caterina, or the Oratories by Serpotta like Santa Cita or San Lorenzo.
About the concerns for run-down buildings that came up in other posts: it’s true, there are many, but this isn’t a stuck situation. It was until the early 90s (because of mafia), but for the last 20 years a massive operation of renovation in the historic center has been brought forward, with hundreds of buildings being renovated. There is still a lot of work to do because there is a huge number of buildings in the historic center, many are aristocratic palaces whose renovation takes a lot of time and money, and Sicily is not the exactly richest of region. But the situation is getting better by the year, and already there is an impressive amount of monuments to visit. Sorry for the long comment, but it’s something I care about a lot.
Thanks for your long comment Marco. We did indeed go to other places in Palermo and will be blogging about them in another post. We did visit one of the restored Palaces and it would indeed have taken a lot of restoration. My sympathies are totally with Sicily and as I point out in my post, things are changing. I do hope you don’t think my post was critical of Palermo and Sicily because we love them both. You can enter Sicily into the search bar on the Budget Travel Talk site to see all of our posts on Sicily.
My pleasure Jan. Absolutely not: I mis-wrote, but when I wrote about concerns that came up in other “posts”, I actually meant other comments to the post. I didn’t take your post as critical; or in any case, it has the kind of non-judgamental positive criticism that is absolutely welcomed. I wanted to add more insight on the present situation, because of course who comes to visit can only see the “absolute” situation, not the “relative” one.
I also liked your other posts about Sicily, I look forward to reading the ones you’re going to write.