Next to the toe of the boot of Italy lies Sicily, our next destination. We are right next door in Puglia but we fly to Rome then to Palermo, the Sicilian capital city. More than anything we realize it is a large city with lots of people in the streets. Our walking tour highlights the center of the old city when visiting the Piazza Vigiliena, we stoppped to talk with a puppeteer and see their tiny theater. They stage the old stories like that of Orlando. Our guide Alexandra explains the Sicilian flag with the 3 legged juggler representing the ancient regions of Sicily and the colors red for blood and yellow for the sun.
We need to talk about food for a while. Sicilians start with cappuccino but only for breakfast. Expresso for lunch and wine of course and my favorite, pasta. The special pasta is Pasta Norma ( with eggplant and tomato sauce). Fish and pasta makes a frequent appearance but it’s not my favorite. They always have appertivos and caponata made with cooked eggplant and tomatoes is the best. Always some meat and cheeses and bread. Our guide points out a gelato business that we return to in the evening. They are serving gelato on a brioche bun with chocolate cream and some sort of frosting on top. Just had the cone but my favorite flavor is coco. We visited the Capo Market which is a daily food market with prepared food and produce. We try several arancinis (fried pockets of dough or rice with different fillings). We are served sliced pecorino cheese (made from sheep’s milk) with nearly every meal… love it!
The Palermo way of Door Dash is to lower a plastic bucket from your balcony to the vendor on the street below or (your mother-in-law) two floors below our guide told us. See above photo.
We take a day trip to Castlebuono to the east of Palermo along the coast. We visit the ornate 14th century castle housing the relic of the head of St. Anne the patron saint of Castlebuono. The lunch highlight is pasta and mushrooms and a seranade by two local musicians. This small city is the home of panettone. Mmmmm.
They have tuk tuks that work better than taxis and we all hop on one on a rainy evening.
