Once in Palermo

Around The World / Caterina / 13 Feb 17

Nights in Palermo are so hot your t-shirt gets sweat-stuck on your back and makes you wish air conditioning could be used outside. But man, this city is a delight to your eyes, and stomach; everywhere you look there’s some marvelous monument, and at least two restaurants or cafes in which you’d eat everything. I stayed six days, and they really were not enough to see (and eat) all I wished. So me and my local friend Giulia did our best, walking and visiting and tasting. She showed me the church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo, an architectural triumph in which you feel like jumping and whispering, at the same time. We had the very typical offal (yep) sandwiches at Antica Focacceria San Francesco, we tasted all the little fried things (they fry almost everything there) at Cuochini, we had Chinotto to try to digest all the food…. We got straw hats, a car, and got to the beach, avoiding the turistic Isola delle Femmine and driving down, to the little town of Scopello, where there’s no proper beach but the sea is so blue you can not believe your eyes. We took the train and got to Cefalù, a wonderful little village in which you can get mindlessly lost, and pause at the local cafe for a “granita con la brioche”. I left six days later, fatter, happier, and fully nourished by all that beauty.