The Colorful Streets of Palermo: A Visual Journey

Palermo is the capital city of Sicily. With over 600,000 residents, this historic city offers numerous landmarks to visit. But  I also appreciate walking around and finding interesting random scenes to photograph. Maybe you will find these vibrant street scenes appealing as well. Enjoy.

These Italian street vendors in Palermo are selling roasted chestnuts, or castagni. The cart’s colorful yellow sign reads “CASTAGNI RA’ BELLA DA CARMELO,” which translates to “Beautiful Chestnuts by Carmelo.” Roasted chestnuts are a popular street food throughout Italy. In Palermo, street food is all the rage, and you can easily find almost any type of food sold in this way here.

I spotted this old-fashioned coin telephone in a booth on a street in Palermo and had to photograph it. You don’t see these in too many places anymore. I couldn’t help notice the handwritten note in Italian taped above the phone. It appears to be an ad for a student apartment rental. It made me wonder what the price might be, just out of curiosity.

As I walked along Via Vittoria Emanuele, the multi-colored sign above the entrance to this building immediately caught me attention. The No Mafia Memorial Museum focuses on educating the public about the Mafia’s destructive practices. and to combat the glorification of the Mafia in books, Hollywood films, etc. Admission is free to to public and is housed in the historic Gulì palace, once home to the Gulì family of famous pastry chefs, who reinvented the Sicilian cassata.

This blue-and-white sign above the entrance to a coin operated laundromat, or lavanderia, was a welcome sight when I traveled with my brother and sister-in-law to Palermo for the first time. A friendly English-speaking woman greeted us and informed us she was the owner of this sparkling clean laundry. While we had to do the laundry ourselves, she was more than willing to help us operate the machines. That business still exists in Palermo today.

 

If anyone tells you the traffic in Palermo is crazy, believe them. The roads are busy and chaotic, and since Palermo is twice the size of Catania, the traffic is much worse. On Via Roma, a hectic one-way street, Vespas seemed to take over the road as they weaved in and out of lanes in stop_and-go traffic.

This outdoor eatery on Via Maqueda seemed to always be packed with university-age young people, and a perfect spot across from Teatro Massimo for a fun-filled aperitivo hour.

Sicily has has so much to offer, and if you haven’t already read my Sicily travel memoir, it’s available in paperback, kindle, and audiobook. You can listen to a sample, narrated in my own voice here. Open this link and click on preview. My Love Affair with Sicily audiobook

Have you visited Palermo or other cities in Sicily? I’d love to your stories, so please leave a comment.

Grazie and Ciao.