Sicily: May 17 – 25, 2025

May 25, 2025 7:13 am Paula

 

Palermo

Hello from Sicily! We are happy to be back on our own schedule for a while.

Palermo, home to the Godfather franchise and season 2 of White Lotus. The food and markets were a welcomed change. The city is a little gritty and dirty, but with the title of ‘the most conquered city in history’, there’s a lot of revitalizing going on and needed.

We stayed at a charming second floor suite hotel on the very vibrant street of Via Bari. Packed with restaurants, shops and thousands of people every day, we were definitely overlooking the heart of old town.

Next door was Mak Mixology, a cocktail bar with the coolest vintage style. It opened into a large outdoor space that had live music. One evening, the sounds of the music pounded on our door so we ventured out to the breakfast room with cocktails and enjoyed the free concert.

Under our hotel was a fine fish restaurant, where we had the best meal in a long time. Salmon tacos with guacamole, Mediterranean spring roll (swordfish), tuna steak with grilled avocado and salmon steak with green apple salad. So delicious!

We deserved this dinner after a total rip off dinner the night before. Cannoli that lasted days, salmon grapefruit salad with zero grapefruit, meat platter, ‘small plate’ midday pasta dishes that killed our appetites for the rest of the day.

We are ‘trying’ to eat the Italian way and have a bigger meal midday and something light in the evening.

The way they park here is insane! 3 cars deep and wide, and then a random sideways parker, locks the locked in, in.

Motorcycles weave in and out of traffic and create their own lanes! Cross walks mean nothing to motorists so you are forced to cross one lane at a time, with a car buzzing behind you as you enter the next lane. Just when you are almost across, a motorcycle comes from nowhere!

Cattedrale di Palermo is massive and on the Sunday of our stay, the congregation seemed to have spilled outside too. So we returned on Monday for a visit of the cathedral plus we made the climb to the rooftop for a panoramic view of the city. There were some shakey knees.

Mercato di Vucciria was a bustling market but we managed to get seated near some live music and had a small plate.

Ballarò – this morning market was alive with crazyness! The vendors are yelling, it’s loud, it’s chaotic. But worth the stroll down the narrow street. Everything is fresh and colourful.

We popped into the ‘No Mafi Memorial’ and saw a lot of crime scene photos. Their purpose is to keep the memory of this struggle alive. The power of the Cosa Nostra has diminished over the years but continues to operate in Palermo. An operation a few months ago resulted in 150 arrests.

We walked twice to the water but never saw an actual sandy beach.

Agrigento – population of 60,000

We travelled by train to Agrigento, a scenic 2 hour trip. Our accommodation was in another suite residence. Cosy with a terrace. The breakfast was really delicious, lots of local / Silician specialties and our hostess made an omeletto. 

The walk into old town wasn’t too far and it gave us more practice at staying alive while crossing the road haha. it was quieter, cleaner and warmer here.

One night we stopped at a bar that was playing American 70’s music – very retro! It was here we discovered they give you free snacks in Agrigento, when you order a drink. These became our ‘dinner’ after still digesting a big lunch.

We had some great pasta lunches! This was on the day we arrived; managed to order before the restaurant closed at 3pm or we would have been SOL until after 8pm!

On our second day, we met a woman from Vancouver, that comes to Sicily for months at a time when she can, to help run her partners restaurant! It was refreshing to chat with her and the food was amazing. Salad, Pasta con Pesto Di Finocceietto, (fresh pasta topped with fragrant wild fennel sauce, enhanced by the intense, slightly sweet taste of sun dried tomatoes), Pasta Al Ragu Desalssua. (Fresh pasta topped with a delicious sauce of crumbled sausage, tomato, onion, red wine and spices.)

We climbed so many steps to see the ancient city at the top of the hillside!

Ancient Library

Saint Lawrence Cathedral – We got to try virtual realty headsets here!

Saint Mary of the Greeks

Fun facts: There were tons of feral cats here, everywhere. We started noticing the women that wore glasses all had huge, dark frames – very stylish!

Most visitors come to Agrigento to see the Valley of the Temples, seven holy monuments from the sixth century. We planned to go on our last day however, we both became ill from something in those awesome food photos, and spent the entire day in our room. Luckily we recovered for the 3 hour bus ride to Catania the next day.

Catania – population 300k

There are no trains from Argrigento to Catania, so we relaxed during a scenic bus ride. The city is located on Sicily’s east coast, facing the Ionian Sea at the base of the active volcano Mount Etna.

Our hotel here was really nice but we quickly discovered, it was pretty isolated. Check out the interesting wall fridge and safe box!

There was one restaurant nearby but they would not serve us at 2:45pm so we walked further, to the water. Here there were a few bars and coffee shops.

You can see Mount Etna in the distance here. The city is sometimes referred to as the “black city” because of the soot and ashes from the volcano. 

Traffic everywhere here was crazy! The cars were going so fast it was terrifying to even attempt to cross the street so it was not inviting to walk anywhere!

We made the best of our two nights in Catania and took the city bus into the old town for the afternoon. The market was very popular. The architecture in the historic centre was impressive; a combination of lava stone and white marble.  

All packed and ready to fly to Milan! We are super stoked to be spending four whole nights in an Airbnb here!

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