Overview
** PALERMO, ITALY **
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Palermo was a lovely city in the south of Italy! It is culturally diverse with a heavy African and Indian population! I even had West African food at Emmanuel’s African restaurant! The food was amazing and we had a fresh ginger lemonade which I can’t boast enough about! The main part of Palermo is rather small boasting beautiful buildings, authentic souvenir shops and amazing dessert places. If you’re traveling alone it’s ideal as everything is practically on your door step.
I also loved going down to the baller I market. You can get all your fresh goods for rather cheap but also you get to see the exciting hustle and bustle of an Italian market.
If you enjoy swimming I suggest taking the bus down to Mondello which takes approximately an hour. The beach is extremely busy. There’s practically no where to sit on the sand so I suggest getting a paddle boat and paddling just under a mile from the shore and swimming there! The water is much clearer here and the views of both the mountains and the sea shore are absolutely gorgeous. If you’re into your insta snaps I definitely suggest getting the boat. If I recall correctly it was 15 euro per hour which was well worth the price.
We also did an Airbnb tour which took us around to local beaches which were more secluded and less busy. Unfortunately the tour is no longer on Airbnb as winter is in full swing but if you’re there during the summer months do look for something similar. I recommend taking hiking shoes as most of the beaches were rocky and weren’t your typical lay out on the sand beaches!
I arrived at Palermo Airport and was able to take a shared taxi ride from the airport for 7 euros to the downtown area. There I walked to my local hotel which as only a 5 minute walk from where I was dropped off. I traveled to Palermo Italy based on a friend I know that is from there who raved about it. Palermo is located in southern Italy and to my surprise relied heavily on tourist and was very diverse in the locals that lived there. It’s full of a lot of history and is beautiful but other than that I didn’t find many things to do there. I would say that the food was quite decent and the nightlife seemed to be very lively.
Things to Do
I spent 3 days in Palermo and during those days I took a 2 bus tour of the city. I found that there were not many things to do other than walk around and explore the city. They did not have any excursions or tours outside of the bus tours. However, the bus tours were only 20 euros for a hop on hop off bus for 48 hours so we were able to do that two days we were there and saw a huge part of the city. If your ever in Palermo I would surely visit Mondello Beach. It is very beautiful and only a train ride away from the inner city. During a time they do offer Parasailing which can be cool although I did not do this.
History
There is a ton of history in Palermo. Palermo is the capital of the Italian island of Sicily. It is filled with cathedrals and palaces and the performance of the opera. This includes Norman Palace, Cattedrale di Palermo, Cattedrale di Monreale, Quattro Canti which is the towns square, Cappella Palatina which is beautiful; and more. So if you are really into learning the history of different parts of Italy I would check out Palermo.
Affordability.
I found Palermo to be more expensive than other parts of Italy Ive been to but this could be because they rely heavily on tourism it seems. I was able to take a taxi from the airport for 7 euros but all of the taxis’ inner-city seemed to start at 5 euros and would charge and outrage amount of money to go not even more than 3 miles. For example, on the day we were leaving, we wanted to take a taxi to the train station (which is roughly 5 blocks from our hotel) and the taxi would have charged us 25 euros to go on a 5 min ride. The food was roughly expensive at the restaurants as well; a meal for two came up to be around $100. Other than the food the hotel was pretty reasonable. We stayed at B & B Teatro Del Sole and it was located right across the street from a very nice restaurant (Plaza Pretoria) whose owner was AMAZING! (So amazing that one night we didn’t have enough money for our food he let us pay the next day we came in).
The Tour bus was 20 Euros
Food was roughly 40 euros per person
Taxis 10 euros and up
Liquor Cheap
Souvenirs Reasonable
Local Food: The food in Palermo was different than the food ive had in other parts of Italy. We ate a lot of homemade pasta and sauce, cheese and spinach balls, tornado potato skewers and a lot of wine.
Traveling While Black
Everyone is very hospitable. Palermo was filled with a diverse group of people and everyone was very kind and welcoming. There were Indians, Africans, and Italians living in Palermo. A lot of the relationships I saw were interracial. It is a great place to travel while black.