We are living day to day like the locals, getting fresh bread, fruit and veggies every day. Meals are light now since we’ve done nothing but eat the last 2 months. Of course in Italy one is expected to eat, the food is so delicious you must enjoy it. Since the kids left, we’ve slowed the pace down and are relaxing a lot more. But, we do get in a morning and evening passeggiata – walk. Just as a reminder, there are some great buildings in Palermo, Teatro Massimo being one of them. It’s particularly nice when there happens to be a practice session for an evening opera underway as you walk by!
Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele. The biggest in Italy, and third largest in Europe (after Paris and Vienna), it is renowned for its perfect acoustics.
It’s a great way to enjoy Italy, stroll around in the morning and evenings and enjoy the chatter of the locals, picking up some of the conversations. Of course there are about 50 conversations going on at once all around you so it can be quite entertaining and depending upon the topic, the level is either normal or very loud voices with the hand gestures all over the place. It’s funny to see someone on a cell phone using an ear bud with the hand holding the cell phone moving all over the place with hand gestures! I find myself easily entertained.
In Italy, especially in Palermo, one must pay attention to where you are walking. One way streets mean nothing here and if you check the traffic and are feeling brave, you just walk out into the street, put your hand up and cross. Mostly I pray they are really paying attention and I’m not going to get run over! Perhaps the following photos taken from our terrazzo will provide a feel for traffic and parking. I know this is the second posting of our street traffic but it is just so amazing to watch all of this work!
via Scordià, one of the four streets feeding into our piazza. Check the double & triple parking, the lane squeezing by and the people walking casually down the middle of the street.
Add in a delivery truck – how do they do it? Never a fight, never any road rage, and rarely even a horn. Check the parking position of the blue car in the foreground, and the scooter by the white truck going to wrong way.
Last one – same van but going down via Scinà. The dark little car left of the white van is parked! One day we saw a caravan of RVs negotiating this street with similar parking obstacles.
Today Jim and I went shopping and I was looking for a fleece type jacket to wear in the cooler weather on our next leg of the trip. Went into a lot of stores but haven’t found what I want yet. However, ah yes there is always the however! I did find some skinny jeans and a lovely pullover sweater. Jim got a really nice leather man bag so we both did well.
Went to lunch at a restaurant where we had eaten with Connie, Brett and Shelley two years ago. It wasn’t quite the same but the food was still good. We were in the mood for Bronzino and they had it on the menu so that’s what we ordered. Jim had a wonderful pasta dish with a pesto sauce that was out of this world – we shared that dish!
Branzino, one of our favorites. Simple, fresh and good although not as wonderful as we remembered from 2014. The wine helped though!
Friday we walked around once again shopping and I found yet another pair of casual slacks and a top. Hope these will fit in my luggage! With all the walking we were doing, we relaxed in the afternoon and then went out for dinner. Found a lovely little restaurant that was just a delight. We had drinks outside then went inside for our dinner since the street noise was a little much for conversation! We both had pasta dishes that were wonderful. Jim had the carbonara and I had gnocchi! Jim added a Secondo of stuffed pork rolls but they were not all that great. Needless to say we were full after our meal so decided to split a tiramisu.
Klikà Ristorantino, via Roma downtown Palermo. On the sidewalk having an aperitif. Juli had eyed this place when they were here. Good choice.
My gnocchi and Jim’s spaghetti – great pasta.
Went to Mass at the Cathedral this morning. There are a few cruise ships in town so the church was packed with tour groups. As the time for Mass approaches, one of the cathedral volunteers tells the groups they must stop taking photos and they have to leave before Mass starts. You’d be amazed at how many people do not understand that request! I could not believe the people who kept coming up during the Mass to take photos and one even went up at communion time, crashed through the line of communicants and took photos of the priest giving communion. I almost lost it with that! It is clear the respect was lacking and it really made me very sad.
Oh, we had expected to attend an earlier mass (once again!) so we needed to roam around a little until mass really began. We visited one of our favorite parks here and again, watched the tourists plus one little old Italian man, dressed neatly and enjoying a couple of hours on the park bench.
Porta Nuova (new gate) near the cathedral and Villa Bonanno, our favorite garden.
A little old Italian man sitting on a park bench in the Villa Bonanno gardens motivated me to give the bench a try.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we opted to take bus rides around the area, in part to give my leg a rest and in part to see parts of the city we had not yet visited. Tuesday we rode up to the top of Mount Pellegrino (no, we didn’t find the San Pellegrino water bottling factory – it’s located up in the mountains in Northern Italy!) We did go to the Santa Rosalia Sanctuary and Grotto where some of the remains of Saint Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, are located. Quite a winding drive to cooler temperatures and wonderful view of Palermo, Mondello and other parts of that corner of the province. Rosalia was a young girl who back in the 1100’s went up onto Mount Pellegrino and became like a hermit, worshiping and praying until she died in 1156. When the plague hit Palermo years later in 1624, she appeared in a vision to a sick woman and a hunter. Santa Rosalia is said to have told the hunter where her remains could be found and that he was to bring them back to Palermo and carry them through the city. He did, the plague ended and she was venerated and became a saint. She is really big time in Palermo and September is a month of many festivals, celebrating her as Patron Saint.
The grotto of Santa Rosalia in a cave on Mount Pellegrino.
Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia where three of her body parts are interred. The remainder of her body is interred in the Palermo Cathedral.
After we returned to our neighborhood, Borgio Vecchio (Old Village, or the “hood” as we call it – cruise ship visitors, or boat people we call them – call it the ghetto,) Jim jumped in and helped Salvo, our vegetable and fruit vendor, pop the ends off green beans so Salvo could cook them up for sale. They are good!
Jim, Salvo, Franko and Cristan prepare beans for cooking right on the street.
Tuesday and Wednesday the power in this area was out for about 6 hours each day so a good time for Jim and me to check out other areas of Palermo. Wednesday we took the local bus and went to the other end of town beyond the train station. We roamed around not finding much to hold our interest. We chatted and I said “you know, when we are not really looking for anything, sometimes those days turn out to be the most fun and the most interesting.” Jim agreed with me of course so we just kept walking. We came upon a street that had tons of foot traffic as well as cars and scooters all trying to get someplace but none in a huge hurry. As we got to the end I noticed a market – I had NO IDEA how wonderful, large, very large, boisterous and fun this market was going to be! It was the best find ever and it turned out to be the one we saw on the Rick Steve’s video which is the largest one in Palermo! The venders are all shouting out for you to purchase their fruits, veggies, fish, meat, cheese and having a wonderful time while yelling. Needless to say the stands were the most beautiful we’ve ever seen and I could have just eaten my way right through it and been perfectly satisfied! I wanted a yellow peach so I stopped at one of the stands and the gentleman was so nice, he picked out two peaches then gave me a plum to taste, it was fabulous so he tossed in a basket of them then he gave me a cream puff which was stuffed with ricotta cheese. That did it, I was in heaven, it was the most delicious thing I had eaten all morning. So he tossed four of them in a bag and gave me my bags. Jim’s comment: “kind of big for two peaches!” I just smiled and said yeah but just wait until you taste these. I gave him a plum – “oh wow that’s really good!” Yeah well wait until you taste this – I gave him the cream puff -” ok that’s really good, can we buy more!” After more walking, we found a beautiful display of olives, a real weakness of mine. I bought a small portion of Sicilian green olives, oh yummy, yummy! Had to be careful we didn’t buy too much because we have to finish all our food before we leave Palermo on Friday!
Just the beginning of Mercato Ballarò. Bellissimo!
And the beans – fagolini (green beans) and fagoli borlotti (on the right). The vendor was cool also! Hope you noted that the price is 1 Euro per kilogram, or $1.12 for 2.2 pounds!
Frutta – beautifully displayed and all fresh and ripe
Frutti di mare – fruit of the sea. There were many such fish displays in this never-ending market.
Baccala, or dried and salted cod fish. Baccala is used extensively in Italian Christmas Eve dinners, but seemingly all year round here in Sicily.
A salumeria with meats and cheeses.
Formaggio, or cheese. Tons of it. Wish we could ship it home.
An olive stand. We bought just a few and they were wonderful.
Pepperoncino picante (hot peppers) – we bought a bag to take to Adolfo in Monteferrante. He cuts them up and eats them with every meal.
After our wonderful trip around the market, we found ourselves on a street unknown to us. Nah we weren’t lost – we just didn’t know where we were. There is a difference between the two! We did discover another church we had not visited previously. The Church of Saint Mary of Jesus or Casa Professa is one of the most important Baroque churches in Sicily.
Chiesa del Gesù, another beautiful interior and different from every other church we have visited.
We then walked until we got to a bus stop and hopped on to head home. We stopped at our very favorite little place for lunch just a stones throw from our apartment. The guys know us well and when they see us coming down the road – they just steer us to a table. We love it because the locals eat here, the food is great and the prices are ridiculously low! A plate of pasta for 3 Euros – about $3.40! My favorite dish is a breaded chicken cutlet over arugula, and french fries! Still, 3 Euros. It’s all so yummy and that is our main meal of the day until we kind of graze through a snack which we call dinner because neither of us is hungry. It is always something tasty and fills the void allowing us to sleep without growling tummies!
My lunch of chicken cutlet on arugula along with fries
And Jim had a rice Bolognese with a Perone beer of course.
I have a feeling we will venture back to the market tomorrow just to walk through and enjoy the wonderful memories we have once again, formed in Palermo. We will leave here Friday with a little sadness at having to say “ciao” to our old and new friends. Oh my two lady friends who live in the apartments directly below ours, were still here and welcomed us with big hugs and lots of kisses! They were so happy to see us again and it was so much fun seeing them as well. Again “ciao” will not be that easy with them either!
Going to close out the Palermo part of my blog now. Jim and I took the local bus to Mondello which is the beach area of Palermo. It is beautiful and there were a few folks soaking up the last rays of the season. We walked around for a while then hopped back on the bus and headed home.
One end of Mondella beach. The beach area to the right of this photo still had hundreds of umbrellas and beach chairs on the sand.
The major restaurant on the beach juts out into the water and splits the beach area in two.
Looking back to the waterfront side of that restaurant
The fishing boats were all back from early morning fishing.
Jim down on the Mondello waterfront.
And I was there as well.
We stopped at a beachfront restaurant to grab lunch but the food was for tourists, we ate about half of it and then left, but not before taking a photo.
Back in Borgo Vecchio, we stopped at our favorite stand to take some last minute photos with our favorite vegetable guys! It’s a pop and son business and both are absolutely wonderful people.
Salvo, his Dad and us in front of the vegetable stand. This we’ll miss.
We part again, about two years later to the day and I don’t think either Salvo or I have changed. If you were wondering, his name is Salvatore, just like my Dad’s.
We are now packed and ready to hop on the 7:45 am bus to the airport heading to Naples where we will rent a car and drive up to Monteferrante. Arrivederci Palermo! Thanks for the wonderful memories once again! A city where the people were just wonderful and made us feel right at home! Of course being half Sicilian really had it’s bennies! Ciao! Ciao!
A little side note here: I was most happy to see Mark Teixeira hit a beautiful Grand Slam last night to take the game away from the Red Sox!!!! No comments necessary on this one 🙂