After moving to Italy, I completely changed my daily routine and, in some ways, even my weekly one. Italy, like several other Southern European countries, loves the Mediterranean lifestyle.
That means the city is most active in the morning (7:00 am–1:00 pm) and again after the afternoon break (from around 4:00 pm). If I need to go to the bank or a shop away from the main streets, I do it either in the morning or in the evening—we rest in the middle of the day. Make sure you have enough cigarettes to last until Monday. There are a few tobacco shops in the city centre that stay open on Sundays and after 8:00 pm on weekdays, but most of them are closed. Opening hours are often a bit more flexible in summer than in winter. The same applies to supermarkets, especially on Sundays and public holidays, so it’s always worth checking before you leave. Museums and even churches follow the same daily rhythm.
Restaurants are no exception. Some are even closed on Sundays, while others have Monday as their official day off. It’s easy to find somewhere to have lunch in Palermo, but if you know a great little trattoria hidden just around the corner from the main streets, it’s better to check its opening hours first.
You get used to this rhythm of life, and after a while it even starts to make sense. But if you’re only spending a few days in the city and at 3:00 pm you suddenly decide you want to eat the best pasta in Palermo, you’ll most likely have to postpone that plan.
The good news is that Google is usually very accurate when it comes to opening hours. So before you head out to visit churches in the afternoon or finally have lunch at that trattoria you’ve been dreaming about, it’s worth checking Google first.