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.

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.

When Lisca Bianca set off on her round-the-world voyage, her owners, Sergio and Licia, were around 60 years old. Over the next three years, they sailed around the world on a 13-metre wooden yacht, meeting Sicilian emigrants along the way and working on a book. When they returned to Palermo, around 5,000 people were there to welcome them.

Palermo’s old aristocracy openly looked down on the Florios — outsiders, merchants with no title and no great fortune. But when the aristocrats needed money, it was the Florios they turned to, putting up their properties and businesses as collateral or simply selling them.