PALERMO

I really love stopping somewhere in the middle of Via Vittorio Emanuele (Cassaro) and looking toward its two ends. On the side of Palazzo Reale, I see Porta Nuova decorated with majolica. And on the sea side — Porta Felice. I don’t know why, but I really love city[…]

There is one place in Palermo that caught my attention because of its purpose: Oratorio dei Bianchi. Today, it is simply a museum, but in the 16th and 17th centuries it was the home of the Compagnia del Santissimo Crocifisso—a brotherhood of men dressed in white robes with large[…]

I admit that I am not a great fan of “must-see sights”, and the first time I visited the chapel was because Michelangelo was being exhibited at Palazzo Reale. I confess, I was wrong. Ten years ago, the newspaper The Daily Telegraph compiled its own list of the 23[…]

I love yachts, and sometimes I simply come to the marina to sit and watch them. If you look closely, on the right side of the marina you’ll spot an old yacht called Liscia Bianca. This story began almost 50 years ago in an ordinary Palermo family. Sergio was[…]

The first time I came across “bread with ice cream” was on the Greek islands. There it was called an “ice cream sandwich,” and I thought it was a joke. It turned out it wasn’t. Brioche con gelato can be considered one of the Palermitans’ late breakfasts, and sometimes[…]

Another bright and delicious symbol of Sicily is the Sicilian blood orange – arancia rossa. Here we say that a blood orange is born where the snow of Mount Etna meets the Sicilian sun. That’s why you can only truly enjoy it during the snowy season – from December[…]

The first time I went to Villino Florio, I took a very complicated route through poor, non-touristy areas of Palermo. Looking around, I started searching for an answer to the question: “Why did one of the richest families in Italy at the end of the 19th century build their[…]

Today I finally visited the Oratory of San Lorenzo. My main goal was to finally see the replica of Caravaggio’s painting that was stolen in Palermo. Instead, I found myself amazed by the oratory itself. It is so deeply hidden among the city’s narrow streets that, even though I[…]

One of the questions I kept asking my local friends during my first weeks in Palermo was: Why are the city’s football team’s colors pink and black? I’m blonde, I like pink, but I simply couldn’t associate it with football. And when I first saw the players in the[…]

This is my favorite church in Palermo – San Giuseppe dei Teatini. I simply feel incredibly comfortable there. There is something about the atmosphere of this place that I really love. The Theatines were a Catholic religious order that built this church in the 17th century. One of the[…]