Stories

In the courtyards of Capo, you can find street art dedicated to a legendary local figure, Nino U Sciupa. When he was young, he loved women and the good life. Later he got married, and he and his wife adopted two children born to prostitutes. In old age, when he was very poor, he collected things people had thrown away in the street, sold them at the Ballarò market, and used the money to buy food and clothes for African mothers and children.

The abandoned Chiesa di Sant’Agata alla Guilla has a history on this site going back to the 12th century, and many stories are connected with it. The most famous is about a gambler who, after losing his money, stabbed an image of the Madonna and Child, after which the Madonna began to bleed. The man was hanged from a stone that miraculously appeared on the wall of the house opposite. In the 15th century, there was a convent here for prostitutes, and in the 21st century, a marijuana plantation.

On a wall in Capo, there’s still a message dedicated to a man who helped children survive the war with donkey milk. Local legend says that years later, one of those children came back to Palermo from America to thank him. He was too late — the milkman had already died — so he left the message on the wall instead.

In the 19th century, the idea of bringing Sicily’s great figures together in one place could be seen by the Bourbons as a political conspiracy. That is how the Pantheon of Illustrious Sicilians came to San Domenico, right in the city centre. Today, you can find the names of nearly a hundred notable figures here, including Giovanni Falcone and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. And next door, in the 13th-century chiostro, there is a small 15th-century Madonna del Latte.

For almost 400 years, nothing was known about the painting. Then it appeared in a private collection under another artist’s name, while a similar work in Venice was long believed to be the original Antonello. Later, it turned out that the Venetian version was actually a copy made by one of his followers. The Sicilian Annunziata was finally recognised as a work by Antonello da Messina.

Palazzo Abatellis in the Kalsa was once the home of a powerful official, then spent several centuries as a convent, and today it is a museum. Inside, I would definitely stop for the huge Triumph of Death, the small room with Sicilian Renaissance marble sculpture, and the Annunziata by Antonello da Messina — the work I sometimes come back just to see.

Two very Palermitan dishes, rooted in "cucina povera" and the habit of using everything without waste. Sicily’s famous lamb intestines and spring onions wrapped in pancetta.

Porta Nuova has two completely different faces. On the Monreale side, you’ll see four giants: two with their hands tied, like prisoners of war, and two with their hands cut off, as if they were no longer able to fight. Walk through the gate and look back from the city side, and instead of warriors you’ll see four female busts symbolising peace, justice, truth and abundance. At the top is the eagle, the symbol of Palermo and a reminder of the old Porta dell’Aquila that once stood here.