Palermo: A gritty beauty.
Trigger warning: Newsletter contains Big Gelato Opinions.
I returned to Sicily recently. It was my second visit to the island, but my first time in Palermo. The city’s energy is not unlike that of Naples or Catania: Gritty, but seductive. The faded elegance of the architecture plus the noisy streets and cramped, energetic markets is a perfect mix. Travel writer Stanley Stewart said it best: “Palermo is the most underrated city in Italy. I would rather spend a day there than a week in Florence. It is chaotic, seductive, swaggering, unruly, and endlessly charming.”
The last few weeks I’ve received several messages from people saying that it seems like everyone is going to Sicily this summer and, yes, this feels true, especially judging from social media. White Lotus inspired a lot of Sicily travel this year, but Palermo - unlike Taormina - isn’t polished and resort-like. The travelers I saw in Palermo were a mix of mostly other Italians and Europeans. Palermo was blissfully free of the “big-hat-wearing-influencer-in-her-Instagram-dress” crowd.
You’ll want two or three nights in Palermo, and that’s all you will need to cover key sites. The DK Top Ten Sicily has an efficient roundup of Palermo essential sites, so it’s good to read ahead of your trip. For background historical/cultural reading, I recommend The Invention of Sicily.
Here’s a great day or two in Palermo. No skips; every track a banger. You can take most of this in any order because the main sites are in close proximity to one another.
What to do:
Secret cannoli: I read nothing about Palermo before arriving so imagine my surprise to learn there was a “secret” bakery inside a cloister in a church in the middle of town. Incredible. HERE is a video showing you where to enter, how to reach the bakery, and a view of the cloister. Find the bakery and church HERE.
From the official website: “The sweet shop is located inside the former Dominican monastery of Santa Caterina, partially transformed into a museum since 2017. The sweets are made scrupulously following the ancient recipes handed down by the nuns of the 21 cloistered monasteries of Palermo.”
As you exit the cloister, full from your giant cannolo*, look across the piazza and you will see the church of San Cataldo. The Arab-Norman architecture is spectacular. Looking at it you are reminded that you are closer to Tunisia than Rome.
(*Cannoli = plural. Cannolo = singular.)