Last – Traveling from Rome to Palermo – Day 4
Mercardo del Capo
First we walked to the local market called the Mercardo del Capo. It was our first introduction to a street market in Sicily and it was a fun experience. We walked down the middle of it checked out the various goods they had. Chris bought some tiles and had our first Arincini. Stopping back at the first booth where they offered us some Ragu. We bought some beer and a plate and a man came and played the accordion. It was a great first experience.
Hop-on Hop-off Bus
We wanted to maximize what we saw in Palermo. So we planned to do the hop on and hop off bus It was a good choice. The audio is crap both physically and content related. The earphones only worked in one ear. If you moved the slightest, it would blare and go silent. Also, it provided very little useful information.
I think the only significant information I got was about the oldest intact female humanoid fossil. It’s about 1500 years old. It was located somewhere near Palermo. It was only missing a finger bone or something like that. Other than that you get a lot of elevator music. I abandoned it after the first 30 minutes. We went around the red line bus route two times to get situated. It’s an open air bus cab. It was fun to stand in the back on top and snap pictures. We passed different buildings and scenes. The route took about 30 minutes to get around the 6 or 7 stops.
It also rained for a about 30 minutes. It was enough for us to decide to stay on the bus for one more loop until the rain stopped. I caught a quick nap. We stopped at the main station one more time. I grabbed an anchovy and mozzarella flat bread, a coke and a cafe latte. We then stopped at the farthest station near Pallazzo de Normanni stop 5.
Evening Walk
We decided to walk down through the main street Vittorio Emanuel. We passed the main cathedral, which had a large open square. We stopped at the 4 corners, or the Piazza Quatro Canti. By this time it was approaching evening and we had about a half to mile to walk to the apartment. We decided to try the restaurant close by the apartment.
This was a great choice. We were thoroughly pooped from the day’s events. After the long day we ate close to the apartment. The restaurant is called Leone which is right around the corner from the apartment.
The State of Palermo
Let me talk a little about this apartment complex. It’s an old set of block structures with little curbside appeal. All the streets into the neighborhood are one way. Cars fill both sides of the streets at all times of the day. There is garbage and filth everywhere in the neighborhood… or should I say hood. It feels really uncomfortable at times because of your initial impressions. After spending 3 days here, the area started to feel like a simple family-type neighborhood. Even though it’s a mess with unkempt and graffiti-laden buildings, it has its charm. Kids roamed the streets. Young women with strollers walked with their kids. After a while I got the impression it was your standard neighborhood in Palermo.
Our guide had mentioned to us on our way in that the municipal services in Palermo are not ideal. The mafia owned the city until the mid to late 90s. This ownership really took a toll on the city. Since then they still really haven’t worked out the city infrastructure.
Dinner at Leone
Now back to the restaurant Leone. Our first night of food was awful. This time it was much better. Was it great. I’d say no, but it definitely was a step above. My in-laws ordered pasta dishes. My wife and I ordered fish of the day which was Sea Bass or Bronzino. It was baked in salt and brought out fully encrusted and aflame. We order a side of potatoes with it and it was simple and fresh. We downed it with a bottle of red wine Maria Costanza. It was light and enjoyable though my wife and I did suffer from heartburn last night.
Next – Trip to Santo Stefano di Camastra and Cefalu – Day 6
