Sicily: Palermo
Sicily has long been on our travel list. It seems like one of those timeless places you can enjoy in any season whether you're a Coppola fan or not. New year's seemed as good of an opportunity as any, so we packed our suitcases and landed in sunny Palermo.
The city has a few interesting historical and cultural sights and is a great stop for foodie lovers. Inventors of ice-cream, all the 50 shades of pasta and pizza's, amazing arancini (in Palermo called arancine) and desserts. It all makes it very hard for any reasonable person to even consider words like diet and calories. There's much to enjoy in the city.
Palermo has quite a few nice things to see, not very museums though. Our top sightseeing picks are:
- The Palermo Cathedral (for the View and some sacred artifacts and the grave of Frederick II)
- The Parliament aka Palace of the Normans (for the culture and history)
- Monreale (for the view and mosaics)
- Ballarò Market
- Giardino Garibaldi
One thing to consider when traveling to Sicily in winter is, that in most places there won't be any heating. But we were lucky enough to enjoy the Sicilian hospitality and discover some not so obvious places in the city, e.g. on which of the city markets you can find your stolen goods.
Giardino Garibaldi is a cute park with a few of old banyan trees and definitely worth a visit for a short stroll.
When in Palermo, visit one of the arancini shops. Unlike the classic meat or ham & cheese version, you can get all sorts of arancini with amazing fillings, from cheese to mushrooms, shrimps and more. We've tested the hypothesis if it's possible to get bored of arancini by eating them every day. Turns out you can't.
Food in Palermo is amazing. Here are our top foodie picks:
- Il Mirto e la Rosa
- Ke Palle, an arancini shop
- Trattoria Altri Tempi (for the local cuisine)
- The spleen and lung sandwich (Disclaimer: one of your foodie travelers thinks this is an abomination while the other can't stop talking about it)
Overall, Palermo is probably a must when in Sicily. However, two days will be more than enough to see all the sights and eat as much as you possibly can.
Untill next time...
