PALERMO

Ever since I moved to Sicily, the Florio family has been the most fascinating part of the island’s modern history for me. A family of entrepreneurs with no title and no great fortune, who turned 19th-century Palermo into one of the richest and most modern cities in the Mediterranean.[…]

You could spend a lifetime eating desserts in Palermo! Maybe you remember the famous scene in The Godfather. After Clemenza and his men kill the traitor Paulie in the car, he says, “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” The line about the cannoli was improvised by the actor, but[…]

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[…]

They say Palermo is home to the largest exotic tree in Europe. I say “they say” because our city has so many places that claim to be the biggest, the oldest, or the most beautiful that I usually end up fact-checking everything twice before believing it. After Garibaldi’s victory,[…]

Whenever I take guests for their first walk through Mercato del Capo, I introduce them to Pupa du Capo, which in Sicilian means “the girl of Capo.” Sadly, it is no longer possible to experience this place in its original form. Yet with a little imagination, it is still[…]

Many experienced travelers know that in tourist cities, large supermarkets always seem to be hidden away from the main tourist areas. We’ve all also had that moment when we forgot some simple everyday item and suddenly couldn’t find it anywhere. That really annoys me. I even thought about opening[…]

I’ll start with a sentence that surprises many of my guests: there are no beaches in Palermo. Yes, it’s a city by the sea with direct access to the coast, but it’s also a port city, and we don’t have a city beach. Most travel guides send visitors to[…]

Palermo, like Sicily itself, feels deeply contradictory to me. It is both very loud and completely quiet at the same time. Right now, it is evening. I am surrounded by pigeons and seagulls. Outside, only Federico, my neighbor from the barbershop, is smoking a cigarette while waiting for his[…]

One of Palermo’s most famous fountains is seen by almost everyone who walks along Via Maqueda. In Piazza Pretoria—known to many locals as Piazza della Vergogna (the Square of Shame)—stands a monumental fountain filled with nude figures. Locals often refer to it as the Fountain of Shame, or Fontana[…]

Traffic in Italy is known for being chaotic. But traffic in Sicily can sometimes surprise even Italians. Cars, scooters, motorcycles, bicycles, e-scooters, and even horse-drawn carriages all seem to be moving in the same direction, yet each follows its own path and speed. I am still amazed by the[…]