Palermo?

F

FFC1964

Recycles dryer sheets
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Has anyone spent much time in Palermo? Considering a month next February. Heard it is "gritty". I am not sure what that means honestly. Any input is appreciated!
 
FFC1964 said:
Has anyone spent much time in Palermo? Considering a month next February. Heard it is "gritty". I am not sure what that means honestly. Any input is appreciated!
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Don't know about Palermo, but gritty could indicate a rougher type neighborhood.
 
We spent 18 days in Sicily five years ago. Four nights in Palermo in a B&B across from the Opera House. We very much enjoyed the city. Walked all over. Enjoyed the market area. Sicily is high up on our bucket list for a return visit. Plus the Aeolean Islands.

And...what city does not have a 'gritty' area?
 
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We went on vacation in Sicily about 15 years ago and spent 3 days in Palermo. The traffic is crazy, but I did not find it to be a "rougher type neighborhood". There are interesting things to see and do there, and the food is great.
 
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It was the capital of the Norman kingdom of Sicily FWIW.

Tori posted this in another thread. Maybe she’ll weigh in more here:
rodi said:
Palermo is a great city... Especially for foodies..... The street food scene is amazing.
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Watch the White Lotus S2, it was based in Sicily, and definitely portrayed Palermo as a little seedier, but that was probably an exaggeration.
 
We will be in Sicily in May so will know then. Lots to see on Sicily and Malta.
 
We spent two weeks in Malta. Then flew into Catania. Airport bus to Taormina. Picked up a rental car a few days later and toured. Up the coast to Syracusa, Erice, the past Palermo to Cefulu for a few where we dropped the car. Trained to Milzano and caught the ferry to the Lipari Islands for few days. Train back to Palermo for four days. Then flew to Rome to pick up a last minute Med cruise to Barcelona that came with great one way cruise air home to NA. About the only thing we booked was the rental car.Everything else was on the fly so to speak.

Only downside....we could have easily spent another week touring Sicily! Next time.
 
So...when we were in Palermo we asked our B&B hosts where a laundromat was. They had no idea. It was a young couple who had just started this B&B. We had been on the road for some time and we had just booked a last minute cruise leaving in three days. We needed more that 2 carry on bags filled with dirty clothes tp board the cruise ship.

It turned out to be a fabulous B&B. We could hear the opera house at night. Wonderful Plus....it turned out that the direct bus to the airport stopped right outside the B&B. We gave this info, and the laundromat info, to our hosts!

Google to the rescue. Half mile a way. Filled up one roller carry on bag with our dirty laudry. Found the lavateria. Bang in the middle of the market. Perfect location. Just drop off, and we pick it up all clean, folded etc. I disappeared. DW stayed for a while. It appeared that the elderly ladies working took great interest in DW's underthings for some strange reason. Nothing kinky or sexy...just utilitarian for carry on travel! How odd is that!

I returned later...after the big show. Owner/manager was there. Turns out he had retired from working as a fisherman in Boston for the past 40 years or so! He came back to his homeland. Fishing became too dangerous for him and he had made enough to retire and buy this business. Small world.

We had the exact same experience with a B&B in Chania, Crete a few years before. Owners spent 30 years operating their own restaurant in LA. Then they relocated home to Crete. Husband wanted to retire and die in Crete, not LA. Very understandable from our perspective!
 
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brett said:
So...when we were in Palermo we asked our B&B hosts where a laundromat was. They had no idea. It was a young couple who had just started this B&B. We had been on the road for some time and we had just booked a last minute cruise leaving in three days. We needed more that 2 carry on bags filled with dirty clothes tp board the cruise ship.

It turned out to be a fabulous B&B. We could hear the opera house at night. Wonderful Plus....it turned out that the direct bus to the airport stopped right outside the B&B. We gave this info, and the laundromat info, to our hosts!

Google to the rescue. Half mile a way. Filled up one roller carry on bag with our dirty laudry. Found the lavateria. Bang in the middle of the market. Perfect location. Just drop off, and we pick it up all clean, folded etc. I disappeared. DW stayed for a while. It appeared that the elderly ladies working took great interest in DW's underthings for some strange reason. Nothing kinky or sexy...just utilitarian for carry on travel! How odd is that!

I returned later...after the big show. Owner/manager was there. Turns out he had retired from working as a fisherman in Boston for the past 40 years or so! He came back to his homeland. Fishing became too dangerous for him and he had made enough to retire and buy this business. Small world.

We had the exact same experience with a B&B in Chania, Crete a few years before. Owners spent 30 years operating their own restaurant in LA. Then they relocated home to Crete. Husband wanted to retire and die in Crete, not LA. Very understandable from our perspective!
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So glad that worked out so well! Funny!
 
FFC1964 said:
Has anyone spent much time in Palermo? Considering a month next February. Heard it is "gritty". I am not sure what that means honestly. Any input is appreciated!
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Got together recently with a fellow female retiree who also likes to travel. While she loves Italy, she said she visited Palermo (a year or so ago IIR) and did not have a great experience. According to her there's still a lot of mafia presence. She also had a male server deliberately brush her breast with his arm while serving her meal. Think she was either by herself or with her (female) partner. Maybe a group tour or travelling with a male partner would be different.
 
My wife and I just got back from a 25 day European trip. First 9 days in Sicily (4 nights in Palermo), with the balance in Spain. We stayed in an apartment 1 block north of the Opera House. We hit all the touristy spots and did a street food tour. The only "grittiness" we saw was the graffiti which seems to mar every building from ground to arms reach. We did see a fair amount of homelessness, but never felt unsafe even late at night.

The traffic is everything you've heard and then some - just crossing the street is an "experience". We also rented a car for a day trip to the small mountain town where my wife's grandfather grew up. Driving in Palermo was not fun, although not as bad as say New Delhi, India. Cefalu was very beautiful and worth the day trip.

Overall we enjoyed Palermo/Sicily - we just enjoyed Spain more.
 
Been to Sicily 3 or 4 times. Only stayed in Palermo and Catania once. Most recommendations are to stay in smaller towns, for the beauty and atmosphere.

Main thing I recall about Palermo is that it looks run down, not as photogenic as a place like Siracusa or Noto, though the Palermo cathedral is in good condition, looking renovated.

Often fly in or out of Palermo airport but I’ve stayed to the south of the airport rather than in the city. Supposedly the traffic that way is better so it’s been Castellamare del Golfo, a small seaside town, from which you can visit some scenic places.

I did mean to visit the mountain which looms over Palermo. It’s suppose to have stupendous views.
 
Not a direct answer to the question specifically about Palermo, but when we had only a 2-week time frame for a Sicily trip and were researching where to go, we felt we had to choose between western Sicily, with reportedly "gritty" Palermo, and eastern Sicily, which just seemed more inviting based on what I read. So we chose eastern Sicily, flying in and out of Catania and staying in an AirBnb villa that felt straight out of a movie-- ancient but no doubt magnificent in its day, now crumbling in that shabby-chic way, surrounded by orange orchards, in a bucolic village, etc. Eastern Sicily has Taormina, Siracusa, everything around Mt. Etna (literally around: the Circumetnea railway), the baroque towns of the southeast, and the northeast peninsula. We had to leave Palermo and western Sicily for another trip. I'm sure Palermo--a bustling, maybe even "gritty" city--has much to offer, and I would like to visit someday. If you have a whole month, you could base yourself anywhere.
 
At the very end of October we did two wonderful beach days at San Vito la Capo (sp).

We got sidelined and decided to stop for a few days.

The weather was hot, beautiful beach was empty, the water was warm. Hotels were empty, rates we very low. Perfect!

We did not plan to stop. We simply came across it after leaving Erice.

Highly recommend the area.
 
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I've been to Sicily at least five times. I think when people say gritty, they do mean run down and with areas of povery, crime and/or drug abuse. I would say Catania is grittier. There are neighborhoods where taxi drivers refuse to stop. These area exist in Palermo but are mostly outside the main tourist areas (except near the train station, Bellaro market at night). Most of the places tourists go are just grittier in the dirtier, raw, faded glory sense. It could be worse for solo females. We may one day do the same, spend a month in Sicily, but we would probably choose Siracusa or Trapani.

The organized crime is still real in Sicily but do not speak of it in the open. This caution comes from colleagues who live there. Also pay normal attention to not leaving stuff out in the open in your car and be careful to watch for pickpockets and purse snatchers.
 
I hadn't stayed in Palermo till 2 years ago, though we had day tripped to and through Palermo on previous trips.

Do not attempt to drive in Palermo - the scariest place I've ever driven. Lane lines, even on the auto strada are mere suggestions, people park (double and triple park) in traffic lanes, blocking travel. ...But the touristic party of Palermo is in a pedestrian zone. At night this area becomes markets that are a food lovers dream.

Take the bus up the hill to Monreale to see the mosaics in the church.

We stayed at a B&B, also near the Opera House. We walked every where. Graffiti is everywhere, but after many trips to Sicily, I'm used to it. It does not equal high crime.

I found the food this be amazing, Arancini, cassata, Cous cous con pesce (actually better near Marsala/Erice/Agrigento but still good in Palermo). Don't bother with granita in Palermo, they don't do it right.... Much better on the East coast.
 
I have spent many months in Italy attending school but never went to Palermo. The grittiest I have been there is Naples and if you hang out where I sometimes do, that can be gritty. So, why am I here. Well, one of the best travel shows on TV, one I often watch is a NHK (Japanese) program called “Somewhere Street” and it had a wonderful episode on Palermo and so I always think fondly of that city. Most folks can get NHK in English and it has excellent programming in English, like “Somewhere Street. I suspect you may find that episode on line and I think it will be worth the effort.
 
Hmm, I just checked out the NHK website, sampled some of it.

Interesting that they'd produce shows in English.
 
NHK broadcasts in many countries and in that country’s language. I watch it on cable but we also watch it in Japanese on Japanese TV as well as TV Japan here in Colorado. Life is grand!

I have visited Italy many times and when I was in the Air Force I was sent on a temporary assignment to an Italian Air Base to study a NATO communications system for three months. On the weekends I would catch a bus or train to Rome and just wander around.
 
My dad visited Palermo briefly in 1943 but was too busy fighting German soldiers to spend much time exploring. I suspect it has changed quite a bit since then.
 
braumeister said:
My dad visited Palermo briefly in 1943 but was too busy fighting German soldiers to spend much time exploring. I suspect it has changed quite a bit since then.
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A few of the older buildings still had pock marks from the bullets when we were there in 2008.
 
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