Following on from my "2018 in reflection" series that I did in December of last year; I decided to continue my holiday experiences as soon as I can on my return. Unfortunately my first holiday of of 2019 does not start the series well. Simply put; it was trash.

If I had to sum up Palermo in three words, they would be; Trash, Parking and Yuck.

You may have already noticed my constant use of the very American word "trash", as opposed to the more British word of "rubbish", simply because I can say that Palermo was trashy. Where ever you looked there was rubbish; bins overflowing blowing rubbish everywhere like an artificial blossom or lining the streets in huge heaps or spread across like bed or cover; sure along the 2 main shopping streets this wasn't so evident but everywhere else you had to go it was frankly disgusting; some streets you had no choice but to walk upon it. I even saw a dead pigeon casually laying on the pavement that must of died of ingesting some of the rubbish and a presumed dead middle aged man; possible also passing from the rubbish.

Not only that the rubbish covered most Palermo, there was also a very noticeable amount of soot and dirt on the buildings, monuments, everywhere as if nothing has ever been cleaned or looked after; even the historical buildings, churches and monuments were covered in a film of dirt of which some buildings were almost entirely black. This might of been enhanced by the sheer number of cars in Palermo but nevertheless nothing had been cleaned. You would of thought they would at least try to keep their churches, monuments and other significant buildings clean, surely? But no.

Back onto the topic of cars; I know Italians love their cars and after being to fellow Italian city, Naples, I thought I would have seen the worst of the automobile, but I was wrong. Where Naples had 24-7 congestion; to the point which I believe it's their job nine-till-five to leave their house, go to their car parked in traffic, get into said car, become an angry Italian beeping their horn waving hands making gestures and faces before getting out their car and going home for the day, only to repeat the following day without every actually moving their cars (quite a tangent, but honestly not an exaggeration in some places in Naples!). Palermo on the other hand had moving traffic, outside rush hour, it was always busy but eventually moving. One thing that Italy does get you to exercise well is your balls; stepping out into the middle of the street in front of moving cars to cross a road because the marked crossings are only advisory, and a green light at a crossroad still means cars turning into your path will still get as close to you as possible whilst you cross the road. But you get use to that in Italy... The worst bit about the cars is the sheer amount of parked cars; everywhere that is not a walking-only street has cars parked on it either side, sometimes double-parked. Car parks turn into a huge gridlock akin to the "Rush Hour" puzzle board game with cars crammed into every nook and cranny making you question how people get into their cars, let alone drive out of the car park. I would say that the pavement is "advisory" on where to talk on the street but sometimes it just vanishes under someone's house making you just walk in the road, or, whenever there is a free bit of pavement it's either completely covered in rubbish or used as a parking space. Everywhere not blocked off with bollards just becomes a place to park a car with no one enforcing any fines.

The final of three words I used to describe Palermo was "Yuck". This is odd when describing Italy... When I told my colleagues that I was going to Palermo on holiday people would ask what there is to see or do there; to which I would respond with the famous Quattro Canti and not much else, stating that "either way, it's Italy, so there will at least be great food that will make the week-long trip worth while." But oh god I was wrong... Every time I've been to Italy; from Venice to Amalfi to Sicily previously, there had always been amazing food, divine and Italian. ...but Palermo was just something else... I've never been so... disappointed mostly? True. I am sure some of that food was not fresh; you can certainly taste store-bought pasta apart from fresh pasta, but also the pizzas, seafood, bruschetta and caprese were just so increasingly disappointing compared to other parts of Italy or even worse then the average British counterpart. How can you even muck up caprese, let alone bruschetta!? But "disappointing" doesn't explain the very blunt "Yuck" I used. One night I ordered a lasagne from one restaurant (one of the two more expensive ones we went to) only to be served what I can only describe as an "ASDA Smart Price store-bought lasagne" that was pitch black and burnt on the top; thrown lopsided onto a plate exposing it's now rubbery lower pasta sheets from the extreme cooking and still charged us for it!? WTF!?!? That top lasagne sheet, with what was presumably the white cheese sauce thematically fused to it, was so burnt that I am sure it was nearly 100% carbon and was so hard you could pretend it was actually in the process of becoming a diamond!

There was one pleasent restaurant that we ended up returning to for a total of three nights; and was surprisingly the cheapest; but the hospitality and presentation far out performed every other restaurant we visited. This was the "Ristorante Da Bacco" down a side street opposite the Teatro Massimo of which I would recommend the Pasta Fresca al Pesto Fresco (Basil pesto, almond, pistachio and parsley pasta).

I've not even got to the point of recommending sights to visit yet; but the list is slim as Palermo is very disappointing when optimistic:

The Convent - Catacombe dei Cappuccini was probably the most... interesting place I went to. Staring at the face of death countless times over, sometimes as bone, sometimes as a disturbing shrink-rapped flesh, sometimes they still even had hair on their hair or on their jaw... All still dressed, the most concerning are in fact the ones in long black robes with their faces hidden making your skin crawl making you wonder what is beneath... A once in a life-time experience; I won't be visiting any more catacombs any time soon.

The Teatro Politeama Garibaldi and Teatro Massimo were certainly impressive from the outside which honoured a few pictures.

However the Cattedrale di Palermo was by far the most beautiful structure in Palermo with it's beautiful architecture from the gold and blue domes and glass, arches, merlons, towers and clock, not to mention tidy plaza out front. I wish I could see more of the inside of the building rather then just the main hall as they offer you tickets to the crypt, treasury and roof. Unfortunately my father who was leading the trip did not wish to pay to visit them.

I took one look at the Norman Palace from the outside and left; it looks so underwhelming and insignificant; in fact the first time I saw it I could not tell it apart from any other building in Palermo because of the dirtiness and no care for it.

The local food market between Chiesa del Carmine Maggiore and the Chiesa San Antonio di Padova was quite beautiful and interesting with a vast array of food from tiny wild strawberries to giant tuna the size of sharks, also there is a similar market by Porta Carini.

If you are incredibly bored; you can visit the Roccella shopping centre for a number of shops; I recommend going to the Wild West restaurant for a delicious French Burger that is just so delicious and perfect; the best meal of the holiday (which is an huge shame for Italy).

But by far the best thing you can do when visiting Palermo is to go visit Mondello instead. It's far less busy, far less dirty, and the food is so much better and cheaper. Treat yourself to a proper seedy fragola gelato (Strawberry Ice-cream) Le Lunette and sit on the clean beach enjoying the time just pass by...

So my final verdict on Palermo is... simply don't go. Don't waste your money. Go to somewhere else much better in Sicily instead such as Cefalù, Taormina or even the undiscovered coastal town of Riposto.



PS. Try arancini, it's delicious!
PPS. Don't try cannoli if you don't like ricotta cheese in your deserts.