After moving to Palermo, I very quickly filled my home with ceramics: jars for flour and sugar, everyday tableware, serving dishes and baking dishes, jugs and vases. I dreamed of having a ceramic sink and tiled walls on the terrace, but apparently that will have to wait for another home. Thank you, Palermo, for the flea markets, where I sometimes managed to find completely new ceramics for just €1–5.
Long ago, ceramics in the home were a sign of wealth. Only well-off families could afford ceramic staircases, floors, balconies and façades. Yes, once I calculated how much it would cost to cover a wall on my terrace with majolica tiles, and I decided to slow down for a while.
There is also an explanation for the colours that delight us with their brightness. Blue, of course, represents the Mediterranean Sea and the sky. Bright yellow stands for lemons and sunshine. Green represents olive and citrus groves. Red stands for pomegranates. Perhaps this symbolism was created simply because it sounds beautiful, and these were merely the pigments available to local artisans. But in any case, it is beautiful.
The ceramics you find around the city are also very different. One of my friends was initially very disappointed when she saw so much mass-produced Chinese pottery. And it is very easy to tell Chinese ceramics from Sicilian ones: Sicilian ceramics are never perfectly uniform. Technically, the paint is applied by hand with a brush, with no room for error, directly onto the white glaze. Naturally, it is impossible to find two identical brushstrokes. Hand-painted tableware is also usually signed on the back with the name of the artisan, the region, or at least the words “dipinto a mano”.
There are several very beautiful and expensive shops selling Sicilian ceramics on Via Vittorio Emanuele (Cassaro). And if you are near the Genio di Palermo in Piazza Rivoluzione, walk along Via Garibaldi through the berrettifici district until you reach the intersection with Via Milano. There you will find a large ceramics shop called Elhabib, selling both Sicilian and Tunisian ceramics. A pleasure for both the eyes and the wallet.