The Church of the Immaculate Conception, in the Capo market, not far from the Porta Carini, is usually closed. It houses four incredible stone mosaics. I got to see them on a tour with Professor Carlo Di Franco's popular group, La Palermo Dei Misteri, which takes interested members and visitors on fascinating themed tours of old Palermo. Read More
Sicily
and Vermont
Fruit vendor at the Capo market
January 10, 2016
I have bought some of the best strawberries of my life in this market. It is a wonder to walk through these market streets. You often see strange African fruits here too. Like squash with bumpy bristles. It is the best place to buy small souvenirs to take home to friends, like exotic spices and Sicilian capers. Read More
Cityscape: Piazzetta degli Angelini
January 6, 2016
The paving stones are honeycomb-shaped! Author Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's family home gave onto this piazzetta. It was destroyed by an American bomb during WWII, rebuilt and now, just recently, turned into apartments. There used to be a water tower and fountain here that brought icy cold water from the mountains, and thirsty aristocrats would Read More
Cityscape: La Guilla
January 4, 2016
This is why I love to roam the back streets of Palermo -- you find streets like this in the historic center. It had been a dump but now it's cleaned up, and somebody started a little garden there. From the Facebok group I Monumenti Abbandonati di Palermo, a group which also meets physically Read More
New Year's Day, Palermo 1934
January 2, 2016
Here's a short, silent home movie of Palermo in the thirties. It shows the Liberty gem Villa Deliella, (02:27 behind palms) destroyed in a night in the 1950s by the mafia to make way for a high rise, now the site of a car wash. Its absence breaks the hearts of Palermitans.
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