Palermo, Sicily

Italy 2024 - Chapter 1

EUROPEITALYTRAVELSICILY

10/1/20241 min read

Italy 2024 Chapter 1 - I’m safely home after three great weeks in Italy. This time, Lynne and I travelled with two other couples, and we wanted to explore some regions we hadn’t been to before. After Nick and I spent a few hours in southern Sicily last year, I knew I needed to return to the Mediterranean’s largest island, so we started this year's trip in Palermo.

Palermo was a no-go zone as recently as the nineties when it was riddled by mafia violence and government corruption. It wasn’t on the tourist trail for a long time, but a lot has changed since then. Palermo is now one of Italy's safest cities, with great food, beaches, and more history than you can imagine.

Sicily is a land of occupation, invaded by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Arabs, Spanish, Ottomans and French. This has led to its unique architecture and food. You don’t associate couscous with Italian, but it’s common here as well as my favourite, Arancini. A deep-fried rice ball with various fillings. Sicily also saw the largest amphibious invasion of our time, when the Allies invaded from Malta during Operation Husky in 1943. In fact, it's said the New York mob was in contact with their Sicilian counterparts to assist the invasion. The Sicilian mob were just as eager to see Mussolini removed as the Allies and thus agreed to provide intel.

Today Palermo is busy and chaotic and still suffers from some issues. There is no water, sometimes when you turn on the tap, nothing comes out, maybe it will come in a few seconds or minutes. We spent five nights in a perfectly located apartment and did some day trips to Cefalu, Agrigento and Monreale. There is no end to the extravagance of the churches in this part of Sicily, each trying to one-up the other. In the Cathedrale of Monreale for example there is 2200kg of gold. (worth about 170 million USD)

One thing we found odd is the sound of fireworks. They went off at all hours, which seemed random, but it could have been a religious celebration that had a 400th anniversary, or a wedding procession. Or perhaps as our apartment host explained…there are a lot of criminals in Palermo, and it is common for them to celebrate when they get released from jail.