Imagine my dismay when I visited Italy and my vision was shattered a bit… My first trip being Rome, which is beautiful and full of history. It was also full of selfie sticks, cheap trinkets, and tourist traps. The food that was so revered, wasn’t that great (of course, there were exceptions…). The authentic pasta was being made by foreigners, heated in microwaves and mass fed to tourists. While, there were bright spots, overall, I was a bit disappointed…Except for the gelato, I would commit several crimes to get my hands on some of their gelato. I am not talking petty shit either, I am talking about something that would put me on Dateline. Overall Rome was both wonderful and disappointing…

My second trip to Italy started off in Positano AKA ‘poison town.’ I already wrote about this monstrosity in this post, but to give you the cliff notes, it was boring, overpriced, inauthentic; I actually think that I would rather have dental surgery, by a proctologist, during an earthquake than go back there…cliff notes over. Knowing that Venice and Florence were also overrun by tourism, I was starting to lose faith in my dream of a beautiful Italy...

Then it happened, I landed in Palermo, Sicily. Some say Sicily isn’t really Italy, but it was the closest thing to what I pictured in my head. Suddenly, I had everything I wanted in an Italian destination. All my dreams came roaring back. Palermo, Sicily saved Italy for me, below is why I love the area…

The Food in Palermo, Sicily

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Love for a country always starts with my stomach, and Sicily hit all the right notes. It took us a day or two to find what we were looking for, but once we did, we would eat until capacity. It isn’t cliche’ to say they have mastered Italian food. You would think that being in Italy would be enough, but Rome dropped the ball a lot. Whether it was a restaurant in Palermo, Sicily or just a street food vendor, you are usually in for an amazing meal. The reason food tastes so much better here boils down to three factors: ingredients, care of preparation, and simplicity…

Everything is Fresh

Walking through the Ballaro food market, you encounter the food that is fresh off the boat (or tree, vine, etc..). Some of it was still looking around wondering how the hell it got there. This is what most of the restaurants use to make your dinner. The fish are wiggling, and the vegetables were brought in that morning. Not only were the vegetables the freshest I have experienced, somehow they make their tomatoes taste like candy. The food in Palermo, Sicily is fresher, therefore better than almost any country I have visited. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. A perfect example, we are walking near the water and we see Mojitos advertised. The guy making the drinks picks the mint out of his garden and a lime off a tree. Fresh ingredients make all the difference and the people of Palermo, Sicily know this…

Sicilians Actually Put effort into Food Preparation

Food is love in Italy and people still put their heart into the dishes they make. I don’t think I saw one fast food place in the entire country. Very little prepackaged junk makes its way to the table, food is a sense of pride in most of Italy (well OK, some of Italy), but especially in Palermo.

Even something as small as a cannoli was made with great care. Once again, there are exemptions, like the train wreck that served us raw pork and shrugged it off, but almost every restaurant had a skilled cook in the back, not someone who was in-sourced for cheap labor.

Simplicity

I think the thing that bothers me most about the food in America (besides the fact everything is loaded with preservatives) is that they over complicate it. I don’t want your fucking deconstructed mint cheesecake, or your Instagram worthy milkshake, I want real food. A simple bowl of pasta Bolognese or a grilled piece of fish. I’ll take the best version of a classic over some food fad. Don’t try to be fancy, the restaurants that try to appeal to the modern crowd, are almost always disappointing (I am looking at you La Galleria). The trattoria that is run by a older married couple is your best bet…

The People in Palermo, Sicily

I think we met one person we didn’t like in Palermo, Sicily…the previously mentioned gentleman (term loosely used..)who served us pork that was so raw that it almost bit us. Other than him, the people were some of the friendliest, most welcoming locals we have encountered while traveling. Sicily was more of a melting pot than much of Europe and is a factor in the country making everyone feel welcome…

The woman who ran our hotel/apartment style residence was welcoming and kind. The entire staff was excellent, it is surely a place we will go back to when we visit Palermo. As a side, I highly recommend the below hotel for a number of reasons, you can read the TripAdvisor reviews on the link below:

I Mori di Porta Nuova

People were authentic and kind everywhere we went. As opposed to Positano, where it was like hanging out at a Sbarro’s pizza, these people were welcoming and appreciative of tourists…

Beautiful History

Palermo, Sicily like so much of Italy is like walking around a museum. The city is beautiful and full of history (hence the title of this section). Palermo can hold its own against Rome in terms of beautiful churches and Roman ruins. All this without the flocks of elderly tourists with rascals and headsets.

Just wandering down the Via Roma, you come across more history than the entire United States. Passing the Palermo Cathedral, running into Quattro Canti, it is like my head never stops turning. It isn’t just the main strip where you run into all of this magnificent history. Around every corner you see a beautiful church or a grand fountain…

Look at the view from outside our hotel, I woke up to the demon statues of the Porta Nova, a 16th-century arched gateway, staring me down. I am not sure why history gets me more excited than a 14-year old boy that just got into a strip club…It just does. Palermo, Sicily has more than enough to satisfy the biggest nerd among you.

Other Things I love About Palermo Sicily

It’s Cheap – I touched on this earlier, but it bears repeating, Sicily is one of the more inexpensive places you can visit. I love to save a buck, and after Japan and Positano I needed to. My arms were so short that they were almost inside my body (short, so I can’t reach my wallet). Sicily helped ease the pain of Positano. We were getting pasta dinners with liters of wine for what amounted to $25. Even multi-course meals with wine at a fancier place was less than $100 for two.

The hotel accommodations were very inexpensive as well, I think I paid less than $100/night for our room. Palermo, Sicily is not an expensive place, cheaper than anywhere else I visited in Italy and most of Europe.

You Never Get Bored – There is always a church or statue somewhere to see. There are tons of museums as well, but I can spend all day just walking the nooks and crannies of Palermo. The little alleys, or the food market that appears out of nowhere, Palermo, Sicily were never dull.

There Are Plenty of Day Trips – Not like you need to go anywhere, but there is definitely an opportunity to branch out from Palermo if you pissed off a local “businessman” and need to hide. You may choose to combine Palermo with other major cities in Sicily or duck into Cefalu’ or Monareale for a day trip. There are beaches to sun on and mountains to climb, all are a hop, skip and a jump away from Palermo.

Conclusion: Palermo, Sicily

I say this a lot, but this time I mean it…Palermo Sicily is my favorite city in the world. The US is my country, Italy feels like my home; you know how a place just rubs you the right way, Palermo did that for me. So much so, that we are looking at houses for retirement (or a vacation home). The beauty, history, food and genuinely kind people, all make me want to go back…and keep going back…. The fact that I can get a bottle of wine and pasta for $25 doesn’t hurt either! CIAO!

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