HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
I visited Palermo two years before the scorching August of 2022, and it was a city whose vibe matched perfectly with summer. A city so alive, a pulsating paradox placed on a map of the West, of Europe, while the blood that beats within it belongs to the East. It is itself confused with the identity that has been given to it, a city (the lost homeland of the mafia and if we turn back time the lost homeland of corsairs and pirates), so much so that to escape its confusion it has gone and lodged itself in a permanent pulse of an orgasmic summer like the thirty-year-old who is stuck in a permanent adolescence and refuses to grow up. Like me, that is.
It is a city that doesn’t need filters because it is like Almodóvar’s films. Red, hysterical, pulsating, feminine. In the heart of Sicily, it both resembles and does not resemble Italy, with the closest I can find to this city being southern Spain with Granada, Seville, Cordoba, and Toledo, and perhaps Cyprus. Palermo in Sicily resembles these cities more than mainland Italy, and to make things understandable by taking them to their most extreme version, there are no cities as different as Palermo and Milan that belong to the same country.
In Palermo, you must set everything aside if you are a lover of living history and let the city sweep you away, as it is a true tableau vivant stuck in the Renaissance. It has museums, temples, as here the lives of people emerge embroidered from the tapestry of the Madonna, it has squares and fountains with images of Poseidon everywhere. It is a city dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the sea.
In Sicily, the economic disparity of the city compared to the wealthy north is evident, and this is also the reason why people need God and the more mentally accessible Madonna much more, as she is the one who helps Sicilians bring home the daily bread.
If at this stage of your life you need a destination that combines the characteristics of a saint by day and a sinner by night, and in between discovering beaches and eating wonderful food, you must come to Palermo.
This city, like every city I discover, has places worth seeing even if very different things enchant you.
From Punta Raisi airport, it is very easy to take the bus from the company Prestia y Comande and reach the central train station Palermo Centrale in the city of Palermo. The ticket ranges between 6 to 12 euros, the buses leave every half hour, and the company’s buses are very new and comfortable. This is the means I chose to travel from the airport to the city. This is the way I tried.The other option is the train, which costs around 5 euros and takes about 45 minutes.If you choose the taxi, the ride will cost you around 75 euros. You should keep in mind that the taxi drivers in Palermo are straight out of an Italian comedy, so be prepared for everything from music at full volume, to them asking about your personal life, and by the end, all of this will be included in their mind as part of the entertainment of the ride, and they will charge you a bit more than what the meter shows when you arrive.
Where to stay
Hotels
To catch the pulse of the city, combining Mediterranean beauty with Baroque luxury, a very good choice is the Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa. It is a very beautiful value-for-money hotel in the heart of Palermo with a wonderful Jacuzzi that is just what you need to relax after a day of wandering through the city’s alleys. The other hotel in urban style is the Hotel Nh Palermo located at the port.It is a modern, minimal hotel, offering affordable luxury and has a rooftop garden with a pool that makes up for it. Now, if a traveler wants to travel back in time and stay in a mansion, they couldn’t make a better choice than Villa Igiea, a Rocco Forte Hotel, an 18th-century mansion hotel with luxurious restaurant with wonderful food and an amazing pool.
Airbnbs
In recent years, when I travel, I prefer Airbnb over hotels because I find it a means that helps me better tune into the rhythm of the city. Essentially, I am a guest paying my host for their hospitality, but by staying in their home, which is decorated according to their taste, I learn more about the culture of the country. There is a common saying that to know someone, you must walk a mile in their shoes, and I add, after fifteen years of traveling and twenty countries I have visited, that to understand a people, you must be hosted in their home, eat their food, and listen to their music.All of this, the decoration of a house from a simple Swedish style home to a heavily adorned Italian Baroque one, contains pieces of what is called the collective unconscious of a people, a concept that is difficult for a traveler who travels with travel agencies and stays in central hotels to grasp. Keep the following in mind. Palermo is a city with neighborhoods, and like all coastal cities, the main streets lead to the sea. The main streets are Via Roma, Via Maqueda, and Via Marina. The four main neighborhoods of Palermo (Albergheria, Seralcadio/Capo, La Loggia, and Kalsa) meet at Quattro Canti. From there, there are many smaller neighborhoods consisting of circular openings between the streets that transport anyone who steps on them into the past.
I stayed in an Airbnb at piazza Conte Federico, the Domus Conte Federico.I stayed at an Airbnb at piazza Conte Federico, the Domus Conte Federico.
The room had a fantastic view, it was decorated with a blend of traditional and modern aesthetics, like a thirty-something who, after a breakup, has re-entered the dating game knowing what they want, truly beautiful with its own bathroom and a nice double bed. When someone stays in a room in Palermo, they should remember that it is most likely to have an attic and that the entire layout of the room is adapted to the attic.
Other Airbnbs that I highly recommend are Ai Cartieri Palermo centro, an Airbnb also at a very reasonable price that offers hotel amenities with the warmth of an Airbnb.
Also, before you book your stay, it’s worth taking a look at the central penthouse on Airbnb with terraces next to the Massimo Theater, which is a beautiful accommodation with very modern decor but warm colors.
Where you will eat
Palermo is known for three things. Art, food, and love, I would say .It is undoubtedly the gastronomic capital of Sicily, a city that marries the traditional Mediterranean seafood with the spices of Africa waiting stoically below. Arriving at the train station, I felt the smell of spices and the scent of fish and the sea reaching me, which made me remember that Palermo is a major port. Palermo is for sure the definition of fine dining. Now if I had to highlight certain restaurants, I would say the following.Cr21 at Via dei Cartari, 21, 90133 Palermo PA, Italy is a modern, minimal restaurant that blends fusion European flavors with Italian characteristics and is definitely worth a visit. Additionally, if seafood excites you, you must visit Osteria dei Vespi at Piazza Croce dei Vespri, 6, a restaurant that is a renaissance of Italian cuisine today, offering a wide variety of seafood and excellent white wines.
The Italians, and especially the Sicilians, place great importance on food, but paradoxically, they bear no resemblance to the hefty Americans, and this is because they cook rather than simply fry everything in sunflower oil. In Sicily, forget about burgers and mayonnaise and remember the concept of slow living. In this city, everyone seems to be eating and drinking constantly, but no one gets fat, and that’s because they walk all the time instead of going to the gym and eat a menu of foods with a strong emphasis on the raw materials, meaning it’s full of vegetables, herbs, and fresh seafood. They live in a less processed world where they take the time to cook, don’t prefer ready-made food, give themselves time to exercise by walking long distances after having their morning cappuccino, and give themselves time to flirt in person instead of using.For all these reasons, and especially because they still remember to pay attention to the present and not get lost in their phones, they smile more. They are people who still carry the spirit of slow living from the 80s and 90s.
The first thing you should visit is the Ballaro outdoor market, the epitome of street food. Ballaro is the amusement park of the gastronomic experience.Ballaro is a huge outdoor market, a food market that offers a vast variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, traditional arancini (traditional Sicilian rice fritters), but most importantly, freshly caught seafood that is grilled right before your eyes and served hot on a white plastic plate with lemon.
In Palermo, we ate a lot and we ate well, starting from the expensive restaurants, but I don’t want to focus on that right now because the dishes that stayed with me from Palermo weren’t at the expensive restaurants but at Ballaro and some trattorias. At Ballaro, you absolutely must try the fried shrimp and the boiled octopus, even if you’re not a seafood lover like I am. You also have to try their wonderful lemonade and Neapolitan pizza, which is baked right in front of you in a traditional oven. The best way to finish your street food meal is with an Aperol with crushed ice from the vendors who sell them. The truth is that Aperol perfectly captures the spirit of Palermo because with Aperol, the heat, humidity, and loud voices calm down a bit in your mind.
The next trattoria I loved is Taverna Dei Canti on the main street Via Maqueda.
This tavern specializes in pasta and seafood, as well as appetizers. Sicilian food follows the tapas concept, meaning small plates from which everyone can eat. The platters with appetizers are the signature dish of the place, especially the dishes that contain wonderful Italian salami and cheeses.Also, if you visit this place, don’t forget to try caponata, a famous Italian appetizer whose base is eggplant.
The other restaurant I loved was near the train station, Stazione di Palermo Centrale, which is a rundown area of Palermo. A restaurant with checkered oilcloth instead of tablecloths that reminded me of a Godfather movie was the trattoria Trappani. Delicious, simple, homestyle cooking made us forget the fatigue of the day whenever we visited.
Delicious, simple, and homemade, it made us forget the fatigue of the day whenever we visited.
