Palerno, Sicily, Italia

Fiorentina v. Palermo

Palermo, Sicily

This past weekend, J and I traveled to Palermo on the island of Sicily to see the Fiorentina game. It was my first time seeing an away game, and boy was it different from being at home. J wore his Fiorentina sweatshirt and he sure got a lot of glares and stares! We had been warned from multiple people about the safety in Palermo, so we were a little nervous about the added attention.

Arriving at the stadium was a mad house! Their stadium is very large with tons of Palermo fans!

It was a pretty view with the mountain in the background. As the sun was setting, the mountain glowed pink, I figured that was why Palermo's color is pink (either that or they got the short end of the stick during a jersey color draw...). Over J's left shoulder is a nearly empty section, that is where the Fiorentina fans are, there were very few. J and I sat in seats we got from the team, we were by 2 other wives from the team, but other then that we were completely surrounded by Palermo fans. It was pretty intimidating. Especially because we lost pretty bad... oh well, it was a good experience and it really made me appreciate Fiorentina fans.

The next day, J and I did the only touristy thing in Palermo, we took a bus ride around the city. We were the only people on the bus, but it was a good way to see the major sights.

Palermo is a dirty, busy, crowded city. It was definitely not love at first sight.

There were some very beautiful treasures throughout the city, although most of them were very hidden behind buildings and grime.

This is one of the main theaters (Teatro Politeama Garibaldi) and the main square in the city. Young people (and the homeless) come here the hangout and meet each other.

This is the opera house, Teatro Massimo. It was built using only big, heavy stones - no concrete or limestone were used. Apparently, this is a world-famous building.

You can also see that traffic was a nightmare, every street was like this. Parking is also an issue, we saw streets were cars were parked 3 deep, so crazy!

Palermo is located right next to the water, but we were surprised at how little the water was actually used. We wanted to go walk by the water, but there were no paths and in fact, it was difficult to even get to the water.

Street markets are a huge tradition in Palermo. Every several streets there is a market selling fish, vegetables, fruit, flowers, clothing, spices, everything.

Palermo's famous dessert is called "Cannoli." It is sooo yummy! It is a kind of cookie shell filled with sweet ricotta cheese. Yum!

The tiny elevator in our hotel.

The next day, we spent exploring the city by foot. As I said before, a lot of the buildings were tucked away. We just happened to peek up a tiny alleyway and this is what we found... Don't know was it was, but it was impressive.

This is the Cathedral in Palermo. This Cathedral is very different from any of the other main Cathedrals in Italy. Palermo and the entire island of Sicily has a history of "being conquered." There is heavy Greek and Arab influence throughout the whole city. This Cathedral was originally a Christian basilica and then it was turned into a Mosque and then restored back to a Christian Cathedral.

Another view of Teatro Massimo.

Before we left, we had to have one more canolli. Did I mention how yummy they were?!

We had a nice few days in Palermo. Palermo was not our favorite city, but we were happy we were able to see what it was like.