Saturday, August 22, 2026
Palermo, Sicily
Pottering Around Palermo:
What a day we have had in Palermo! Everyone who had visited this city previously had told me how wonderful it is. But, you have to see it to believe it!
Anyway, allow me to tell you why both Llew and I fell in love with this place. First off, we woke up, after a good night’s sleep, in il Pachetto Charme e Design B and B on Via Donizetti in Palermo, where we had arrived last night at about midnight. Did not have much of a chance then, as we were both so exhausted, to really appreciate how wonderful this hotel has turned out to be. It is both the things it advertises in his name: charming and beautifully designed. The walls have frames on them that contain illustrated Italian recipes! I have taken pictures of each of them. Donizetti is one of my favorite opera composers and his ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ is one of my favorite operas! This owner might have seen me coming!! Anyway, the side streets are named after Verdi and Bellini and Rossini—if you can believe it! When I awoke, I discovered that when I stepped out on my lovely little wrought-iron balcony and turned my head to the left, I was staring right at the dome of the Teatro Massimo, the gorgeous opera house of the city between the plain buildings of our street. It was such an unexpected sight! But so uplighting!
Once fully awake, we showered, got dressed and went to the little eating area (like a small café) for breakfast. Sylvia, our hostess, had laid everything out so well—so organized and systematic. There was a little basket in the fridge with the name of our room (Nifra) on it. In it, there was a small box containing slices of cheese and cold cuts (salami and ham). We used these to make take-out sandwiches (with the sandwich bread she had provided) as there was so much else available. There were also pots of yogurt, jam, marmalade and bottles of orange juice. On the buffet, there was a sweet (a lemon tart), sliced sandwich bread, butter (in the fridge), honey, marmalade, Nutella—a toaster, a coffee machine with coffee pods available), tea bags with sweetener and sugar. Sylvia had thought of everything. It was amazing! Our places were well set with crockery and cutlery. We made ourselves coffee and then created breakfasts for each of us, according to our taste. Quite replete, we left for our first stop: a visit to the Stazione Centrale (Central Train Station) to buy tickets for our trip to Agrigento the day after tomorrow.
Using online resources, I discovered that a free shuttle bus was available from the Piazza of the Teatro Massimo, but I was mistaken. Instead, we were directed to take the public bus Line 101 along Via Roma to get to the station and this we did—paying 1.30 Euros per head for the ticket to the driver. We were there in about 15 minutes and in no time at all, we were in the line waiting to buy our tickets. The clerk was able to speak perfect English and he informed us that there was no train to Agrigento but a bus that left from right outside the station. We settled for the one that would leave at 9.30 am (after breakfast) and with 2 tickets in our bag (11 euros each), we were off. Mission Accomplished! We could now begin our sightseeing for the day. We reversed our journey and took the return Line 101 to the same spot at the Teatro Massimo. En route, we made a slight detour to arrive at the Oratorio of St. Sebastian where we made a swift, prayerful visit.
Viewing the Teatro Massimo:
On arriving at Teatro Massimo, we had a chance to appreciate its architectural bones—like the Opera Garnier building in Paris, it presents various faces as you circumnavigate it. It is a celebrated building, the third largest opera house in Europe and one that is known to present some of the world’s best-known opera companies. Also, the building has gained notoriety as Francis Ford Coppola shot the last scenes from his film, Godfather III, on the massive and very elegant stairs leading to the main lobby. All the more reason to stop and take a picture standing on those steps. There were large numbers of walking tours being conducted in various languages all around us as we followed instructions and returned to our B&B to meet our landlady, Sylvia and to do the entry formalities with her (as it had been too late last night).
And once those were carried out, we began our walk along Via Maqueda to get to the center of the city—a place called Quattro Conti (the Conti Quarter).Strolling Along Via Maqueda:
Via Maqueda itself deserves a sightseeing word. It is an old Roman Route—once used by traders and their customers and, two thousand years later, this is still its chief function. Both sides of the narrow street are lined with restaurants. Because it is so hot at this time of year, every place is a café trottoir—a pavement café, with tables and chairs spilling out and adding to its craziness. There are also souvenir shops galore filed with the most enticing wares and if you have the time and the inclination, you can completely empty your pockets here. We walked smartly ahead to Quatro Conti.
Viewing the Four Corners of Quatro Conti:
Conti is a most unusual and interesting junction. It is the intersection of four streets—each marked by completely sculpted facades that feature a fountain at the base with a well-known Roman deity and graduating upwards to present nobles and aristocrats of Palermo’s historical past. The sun plays games on the four corners so that, at different times of the day, different portions of it are highlighted. This is where most tourists congregate or pose for pictures. It is probably one of the oldest parts of the city and continues to attract with its architecture and artistry. Quatro Conti also makes the perfect spot from which to begin sightseeing along Corso Vittorio Emmanuel, the main thoroughfare that contains some of the city’s biggest attractions. So here are the items we ticked off our To-Do List (thanks to the lovely little map that Sylvia gave us).
The Praetoria Fountain Near By:
Just a block along Via Maqueda is the famous Praetoria Fountain—so called because, in Roman Times, the Praetoria was located here. Apparently, the fountain is similar in design to one found in Messina on the other coast of Sicily. It is a massive architectural achievement consisting of concentric circles in tiered heights. In the center is a Roman deity (water gushes out from the top) and all around it are nude nymphs, Tritons, etc. in sculpted marble. It presents a lovely place for posing opportunities as you get the dome of the Church of St. Joseph, at the back, depending on where you position yourself and the dome of the Monastery of St. Catherine on the other. So, the fountain is sandwiched between the two of them. Llew and I encircled the fountain on foot and took pictures to our heart’s content, before moving on. I have to say that the map informed us that most of Palermo’s attractions are to be found on one street—Corso Vittorio Emmanuel-- so that all you have to do is walk along it to see most of them.
Next Stop? No Mafia Museum:
One cannot really visit Palermo without coming to terms with its Mafioso past. And the city makes sure you remember the deadly days of the Cosa Nostra, the families of organized gangsters who ran the city through racketeering in drugs, prostitution, extortion, etc. All these aspects of it (and they continued until the 1980s—if you can believe it) are documented in the No Mafia Museum which is free to enter. Of course, most of the world first became acquainted with the Sicilian Mafia through Mario Puzo’s fiction and Coppola’s trilogy of films that documented the role, contribution and activities of three generations of the Corleone family—in The Godfather series. But here, in this museum, you leave fiction behind and enter the real-world of the gangster families, through mainly photographs and some video coverage. Although most signage is in Italian, there are some notes in English, but honestly, it would take at least half a day to do justice to this museum—and we did not have the luxury of that kind of time. Instead, we went through the few galleries that comprise this museum really quickly. Your blood will run cold as you read details about the activities of the Mafia and the manner in which they eliminated any and everyone who stood in their way. The church, the state, the police…veryone was in their pockets. Everyone was making money from their activities and if you did not comply or attempted to bust their operations, you were eliminated in such a way as to make it look like an accident. I mean, there is just so much to write about this museum. There is also a whole section on the Seven Bandits—but I know too little about them to be able to comment. This museum made me want to go back home and do some more reading to educate myself about their place in this horrific saga. I became familiar with the family names of Falcone and Borsalino. But for lack of space and time, I will simply say that every visitor to Palermo should stop by and see this monument to the past. It is still hard to believe that law enforcement was finally able to end these sinister operations and that the families (as in the case of the Mafia in Chicago in the 1930s and 40s) were finally crushed.
Stopping Off Briefly at the Museum of Modern Art:
En route, we passed by the Museum of Modern Art. We entered and found that it was in a palazzo but, as we did not have the time to explore it (it seemed to have a lot of work by Botero), we merely looked into its rather lovely museum shop and moved on. The square in which it is located is also picturesque. It has a sculpture in the center and is surrounded by quite evocative buildings on all four sides. We continued along the main street and then popped into the quadrangle of another palazzo—these homes of the rich and famous are studded all along the street. The architecture of each of them in unique and highly photogenic. Finally, as the heat mounted, we arrived at the massive Cathedral of Palermo.
Exploring the Cathedral of Palermo:
The Cathedral of Palermo is one of the city’s biggest attractions. It is a massive building made of rust-colored stones that extends for about two New York City blocks. It is also highly decorative on the outside so that you cannot stop taking pictures from its various angles. The gardens in front are also quite lovely and provide the only pops of colors in a monochromatic palette. The building has turrets and spires, a long walkway and a dome—it has all the ingredients of ecclesiastical architecture. After taking a whole lot of pictures, we moved inside, eager to get away from the glaring sun and the heat that was steadily building up.
We learned inside that this building was built in the 1100s on the foundation of an Islamic mosque that stood here from the 9th century. There is a small inscription from the Koran that is still visible on one of the grey granite pillars to the left of the main entrance—the only visible sign that this was once an Islamic place of worship.
Inside, you enter a vast and very cool space—cool in the sense that you find relief from the merciless sun outside. As in the case of all European Baroque sacred structures, it has an exuberantly painted ceiling depicting scenes from the Bible, tons of marble statues of the various saints high up on plinths lining the main nave, an abundance of side chapels, each devoted to a different saint (each more decoratively adorned with variegated marble), a grand main altar (this one is entirely in silver and is dedicated to St. Rosalie (the patron saint of Sicily) whose relics are on display in a silver casket on the altar.
Yes, there is pietra dura everywhere as Marble is the magic ingredient used in the most artistic and creative ways to make the interior visually stunning. After we saw the entire cathedral, with all its altars with their painted altarpieces and their sculptures, we walked to the back of the cathedral where we saw the tombs of the four aristocrats of Sicily who are buried here—Frederick II, Roger II and two others. Their tombs in solid porphyry (the rarest and most expensive marble in the world—deep purple in color and used for the mausoleums of all the popes) is the reason why it has become extinct—it was once quarried in Egypt, but there is none of it left in the world! We took pictures of all these aspects as well as of the pillar with the Koranic inscription before leaving the Cathedral and walking out again in the blazing sun. By this time, it was about 1.30 pm and we were ready to eat some lunch. We had carried sandwiches (cheese and cold cuts) and looked for a shady spot in which to consume themHaving lunch in a pretty garden and Arriving at the Grand Royal Palace:
We did find a shady spot and we sat down and enjoyed our sandwiches—which gave our feet a chance to take a break to as we had been on them for such a long while that fatigue was beginning to creep up on us. However, as we had come almost to the end of the main road, where the main attraction is, in fact, located, we pressed on.
Not a couple of blocks later, we arrived at the precincts of the Palace and, my goodness, how huge it was! This was really the piece de resistance of our sightseeing day. For a ticket of 17 euros, we were led inside, but not before we stood outside and took pictures of its massive girth, all stone in rust-shades with crenelated turrets to which one is led along wide stairs to the main entrance.
Viewing the ‘Monet and Other Impressionists’ Exhibition in the Palace:
It turns out that some of the kingly rulers of Sicily descended from the Norman rulers of France and since Monet and the Impressionists spent so much time in Normandy, they saw it fit to hold a huge exhibition of the art works of Monet and his contemporaries in the palace. The 17 Euros ticket included entry to this collection and, needless to say, I was thrilled.
So, to begin with, you enter a space where you are fully given in to the magic of AI. About a dozen paintings and photographs depicting the Impressionists on the beaches of Normandy were used to create an AI program to show the visitor how they painted ‘en plein air’ (outside, in the open). It was quite lovely indeed. Just adjoining it, was another small cubicle where, through the use of mirrors on all sides, the viewer felt as if he or she was actually in the space surrounded by Monet’s paintings. These moved and changed and presented such a lovey experience (similar to the ones of Monet and Van Gogh’s work that I have seen in Bombay). This seen, one moves into the main exhibition space where paintings, large and small, are exhibited under thematic sections: By the sea, on land (all in Normandy, of course), by the harbors of Le Havre, Arromanches, Honfleur, etc. There were works by such recognizable names as Renoir, Monet, Cezanne as well as Pissarro, Sisley, Bonard and one by Berthe Morrisot plus a bunch of other names that I did not recognize at all. It was amazing to me that so many painters of the period were imitating the style of the Impressionists and were doing it reasonably well. As an artist myself, I know now how difficult it is to produce this style, so I am doubly impressed by the efforts of these contemporaries.
Seeing the Roman-Punic Archeological Remains:
This done, we were directed to the lower level were the excavated remains of Roman-Punic Palermo can still be seen in beautifully delineated walls, rooms, etc. The Palace, it is hard to believe, was built in the 15th and 16th century and added to in the 18th century, upon the ruins of this entire city that once stood tall and proud in the age of the Romans. I found its long history just amazing.
Entry into the Palace and Visit to the Pallatine Chapel:
Finally, we were in the Palace where we had to climb two high floors along extremely wide and very shallow marble staircases to get to the top. I know from my visit to Bologna, a few years ago, that these types of staircases were designed for horses to climb them! This allowed the animals to get to the very chambers of their royal owners so that they could be brought downstairs or be riden upstairs! Anyway, by the time I arrived at the first floor, I was breathless and so we decided to see the Palatine Chapel first.
And oh my goodness…I had no idea what to expect and I have to tell you that I was taken straight to Ravenna, on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, which I had also visited a few years ago. Ravenna is noted for its many Roman-era churches and chapels that were designed in the Byzantine style by the use of the most visually stunning mosaics. Well, this Palatine Chapel was exactly the same. The entire chapel (and it is huge) is covered with these mosaics—many of them in the glorious gold tile that actually glitters and gleams in candlelight. The depictions on the walls were of scenes from the Bible and of Biblical figures of Christ and the saints—so large and so realistic that they are breathtaking! I mean I cannot even find the words to describe what we saw. Plus there are motifs on the marble walls whose decorative elements seem to derive entirely from the Moorish or Islamic influence of its erstwhile past—there are geometrics that are only distinctive to Islam. I found all of this simply fascinating and I would say that this was, for me at least, the piece de resistance of our visit to Palermo.
Visiting the Royal Apartment:
Once we finished our visit to the Pallatine Chapel, we climbed one more flight of wide stairs to arrive at the Royal Aparment. However, I have to say that, having seen the Byzantine mosaics, one floor below, there was really nothing here to compare. It is a series of rooms, royal of course, but run-of-the-mill, I guess. Some paintings, a bunch of antique furniture pieces (many from the 18th century), some decorative items (sculpture, lamps, chandeliers)—the usual paraphernalia of aristocratic living. There are some interesting paintings on the wall, done in imitation of those found in Pompeii—but truly, by this stage, nothing to write home about. Also, as we were quite visually and physically fatigued, by this time, we were ready to call it a sightseeing day. So, we retraced our steps back along Corso Vittorio Emannuel and decided to get back to our hotel for a much-needed rest.
Visiting the Spectacular Church of St. Joseph (Guiseppe):
Just as we reached the spot called Quattro Conti, we discovered that the Church of St. Joseph was open to visitors. For 2 euros each, we could enter it, and goodness, how pleased we were that we thought it wise to spend the 2 euros and go inside. It was a confection of the most magnificent decorative details: a splendid Baroque painted ceiling that stretches the entire length of the nave, an abundance of figurines (angels, cherubs, etc.) that are sculpted and then attached to the ceiling and sides of the church to appear as if embossed—they are three-dimensional and the only time I had ever seen anything like this was at the Chateau of Fontainbleu outside of Paris, a few years ago. The decoration was simply exuberant and was seen all over the church—in its many side chapels and on the main altar. One of the items that really moved us deeply was an unusual depiction of the adult Jesus with his foster father, Joseph, in his arms as his mother Mary looks on. Neither Llew nor I had ever seen Joseph and Jesus depicted as adults—we have seen many images of the Baby Jesus in Joseph’s arms. This was deeply moving. It appears as if Joseph or sick or dying and Jesus was cradling his head tenderly as he offered care. So lovely!
I also found out what time the masses were, the next day, as it was Sunday and we wanted to begin our day with Mass. Turns out there was a Mass at 10,00 am and so we resolved to return to this church tomorrow to attend Mass.
En Route to our Hotel for a Long Nap:
You can guess that, by this point, we were fairly falling with fatigue and decided to go back to our hotel for a rest. En route, however, we stopped at a few souvenir stalls to buy some scarves as gifts for female friends as they were so beautiful and we really loved the depictions of citrus fruit (mainly lemons) that are symbolic of Sicily. With these in our bags, we arrived at our B&B and bedded down for about three hours. We would emerge again at about 6.00 pm to find a place for dinner close to our base as we simply could not fathom the idea of walking again for miles. Lonely Planet online was a great resource, and it suggested a place called DOBA—so there we went! And Boy, was it gorgeous!
Fine Dining at DOBA:
DOBA was hard to find although we used our Google maps app to find the place. It happened to be on the third floor of a building off Piazza Theatro Massimo—we had to use the intercom to get them to open the main door, after which we took the elevator upstairs. At the main door of the restaurant, we were greeted by the owner-chef himself who said, “I am Doba”. Well, he was just lovely. We were seated on the terrace with the huge dome of the theatre just behind Llew’s head. It was time to take a look at the menu.
Llew had a local Sicilian red wine (after consulting with Doba himself). I chose a negroni and thought of my friend, Sangeeta, who loves them. It was delicious. As we awaited our drinks, we were presented with three amuse-bouches: one was a parmesan crisp with a dab of hummus on it (delicious), another was a small croquette with a touch of basil in the sauce and the third was a tiny bowl of caponata which is probably the best I have ever eaten (even better that London’s Antonio Carluccio’s offering in his restaurant—which I often order and take away home because I love it so much). Next, we decided to have a pasta dish as our Primi and we opted to share it. The kitchen divided it quite easily into two plates with Fussolini pasta (corkscrew pasta) in a pistachio pesto (instead of walnuts)—the flavor was far more subtle. Chopped and roasted pistachios finished off the dish, but the highlight was that it was topped with a raw langoustine (similar to sashimi and just as delicate in taste and flavor)—we loved it. Next, for our Main or Secondi, we chose the Beer Pork Neck (which turned out to be pork neck cooked in beer for 12 hours). It was so tender that it was literally falling off the bone and not too fatty as most of the fat had rendered during the slow cooking process. The gravy that came with it was scrumptious. This dish was served with thrice-cooked potato fries: first boiled, then dried out in the oven for an hour, then fried and well seasoned. And finally, there was a dollop of pesto on the side. The whole experience was simply superb and after we congratulated DOBA who told us that his full name was Domenico Basile—and that he derived his name from the first two letters of each name—we posed for a picture with him. Who knows but someday, he might become one of the world’s most celebrated chefs. Anyway, the entire experience cost us about 100 euros and I thought it was great value for money.
Dessert was eaten outside on the square; for the Piazza was simply heaving at about 11.00 pm. Most people have an afternoon siesta as the sun is simply so intense at that time that they extend their day well into the night. There were diners, walkers, buskers, etc. even at that time, all congregated around the stairs of the massive Teatro and offering real-life theater. We found a gelateria that offered no less than 50 flavors of gelato and opting for Dark chocolate with cinnamon and chilli powder and gianduja (hazelnut chocolate), we had ourselves an absolutely memorable dessert.
And on that happy note, we were delighted that our B and B was just a block away on Via Donizetti. We made our way upstairs in the elevator and as soon as we entered out rooms, we brushed our teeth, changed for the night and crashed. It has been a sensational day and we were just delighted with Sicily
Until tomorrow, ciao…
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