May 27, 2004

We wanted to see as much of Palermo as possible as this was our last day in Sicily. And so we decided to forget about all of the shopping that we needed to do. We got up early, packed our bags and stored them in at the hotel lobby for later pickup. We got our morning espresso at a nearby café and then walked to the Vucciria market.

In the Sicilian dialect, “vucciria” means "voices" and that's what you hear at the market everywhere. The market spills onto the narrow side streets of Piazza San Domenico off Via Roma between Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the San Domenico Church. It reminded me of a Middle Eastern souk, with mountains of food laid out. Everything from wild fennel to blood oranges and giant octopus. The market takes place Monday through Saturday until 2pm. I recommend going before 10am when it's at its most frenetic and colorful. One of the favorite things that I tried there was the olives – small, large, black, brown, red, gold, sweet, sour. Dozens of makes and models. I also managed to get a new watchstrap for a couple bucks. We finished up at the market with our final lemon granita of the trip. We headed east on Via del Candelai and were surprised that the market spilled into this area as well. In fact, market stalls continued another kilometer east all the way to the Cathedral.

Palermo’s Cathedral is similar to several other churches in Sicily in that it looks like a fortress. Inside it was stark as well. We also visited the treasury and crypt (I don’t think either were particularly interesting and believe most people could give it a miss).

View image of Palermo's Cathedral

We continued on our walk east to the Norman Palace but couldn’t figure out where the entrance to the Palatine Chapel was. We somehow wound up at San Giovanni degli Eremiti. This proved to be serendipitous as we were feeling that we needed a relaxing, quiet place to stop and rest for a while after the chaos of the Vucciria Market visit. San Giovanni degli Eremiti (St. John of the Hermits) is, according to Michelin, “a place providing a tiny haven of peace where even the noise of the Palermo traffic seems muffled”. The church and gardens were completely empty of tourists. Inside were palm trees and pretty, well-maintained gardens. We stopped for a water break and Emily ran around burning off steam. This oasis of calm sort of appeared out of nowhere.

It was lunchtime so we decided to walk all the way back to the Quattro Canti area. Our chef friend in Los Angeles had wholeheartedly recommended “Casa del Brodo” at 175 Corso Vittoria Emanuele. This restaurant, founded in the late 19th Century, was packed with businesspeople on their lunch hour. We managed to get a table and were treated to what turned out to be the best meal of our entire trip. The food was absolutely perfect. I started with pasta with tiny clams and mussels. Fantastic. Better yet was the fresh fish, which we enjoyed with another bottle of Tasca d’Almerita Chardonnay. This $11 bottle rivals any decent, inexpensive Austrian or German white but the beauty about it is that it tastes fresh and fruity, not overly oaked liked a lot of California wine. The meal ranked with any of the best meals we’ve had in Italy anywhere.

Emily was still asleep when we left the restaurant so we took advantage of this and walked to a nearby food shop that had been recommended to us. The store, “Confezionando”, is located at 299 Corso Vittorio Emanuele next to the Quattro Canti. The small shop sells Sicilian wines, pastas, pastries, honey, liqueurs, olive oils, preserves and many other specialty products. The selection is carefully tailored to only include small production, high quality items.

The Palatine Chapel was located back at the Norman Palace where we had previously been earlier in the afternoon. It was built sometime in the mid 12th Century and is known for its beautiful mosaics similar in style to those found in Monreale. We walked quickly through the Chapel, as we needed to get back to the hotel to get our bags and go to the airport. I wished we had more time in Palermo and would have devoted an hour or two more to the Palatine Chapel if we had this extra time.

View image of Palatine Chapel Exterior Mosaics

Our taxi driver who brought us back to the hotel nearly had a fit when Emily climbed into the driver’s seat while he was busy opening the trunk for me. He cursed something in Italian as he went back to the trunk to retrieve some sort of feather brush. He quickly returned to clean his seat with manic swipes.

We returned to the hotel, grabbed our bags and had some water at the hotel bar while we waited for a taxi that had been ordered. We were soon on our flight to Rome and an overnight stay at the Rome Airport Hilton. The next day we caught an Alitalia flight to Paris and then a Delta flight to New York where we spent two fantastic days with good friends.

Looking back, I wish that we had double the amount of time to fully explore Sicily. We visited the entire island in just 9 days. For anyone seriously seeking to spend the minimal amount of time to see properly the sights that we visited should best allow for a minimum of 14 days. I would have used the 5 extra days thus: 1 day in Trapani and Erice on the west of the island, 1 extra day split between the Baroque cities of Ragusa, Modica and Noto, 1 extra day in Syracuse, 1 extra day split evenly between Catania and Taormina and 1 extra day in Palermo. Even with these 14 days, most sights could only be briefly visited.

To sum up the trip, I’d have to turn to what really mattered to us. The magnificence of its people - their warm welcomes, their accommodating manner and their general happiness and pleasantness. I realize that we got the royal treatment because we were traveling with a very precocious and outgoing, blonde, curly-locked, little girl. If the Italians put their children high on a pedestal, the Sicilians lift the pedestal into the sky to get their children closer to the clouds. Their fondness for Emily and children is made evident in the way they treat their own children. It is evident in all of the shops and products that cater to children. It is evident in the way they welcome babies and children into their restaurants and hotels - from the most formal to the most casual. At every street corner, be it man or woman, the Sicilians would approach Emily and inquire about how old she was or how she liked their town. Anything to elicit a response or interaction. At every restaurant, waiters would entertain and play with her. Every hotel worker or owner would go out of his or her way to see if we needed anything for her. Nowhere else have we traveled where the people go out of their way to treat children so well. Got kids and need a vacation? Take ‘em to Sicily! You might not have a bad time either. Enjoy. And please feel free to email me at jeffrey.berk@sbcglobal.net with comments about your trip to Sicily.