For 91 Days in Palermo

Adventures, anecdotes and advice from three months exploring Palermo

For 91 Days we lived in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. As chaotic as it is beautiful, this city provided an incredible base of operations during our explorations of Sicilian culture, food, and history. It was an amazing place to call home for three months.

Whether you're planning your own journey to Palermo, or just interested in seeing what makes it such a special city, our articles and photographs should help you out.

For 91 Days in Palermo – The E-Book

We've collected three months of our experiences in Sicily's capital into an E-book, which you can download directly or buy on Amazon for your e-reader. Get over two hundred full-color images, and all our articles from Palermo and Sicily in an easy-to-carry format. With a comprehensive index arranged by category and date, the e-book is easy to navigate, and filled with beautiful photos, amusing anecdotes, and detailed, well-researched descriptions of this Mediterranean city's incredible food, culture and history.

Arrivederci, Palermo!

Our first few minutes in Sicily were spent navigating the streets of Messina, after having arrived on a ferry from the Italian mainland. Honking cars, crazy motorbikes and messy urban lawlessness, it was an immediate taste of the chaos which would accompany our 91 days in Palermo; an antipasto to the capital's main course of noisy pandemonium. By the time we had gotten through Messina and onto the highway, my nerves were frayed and patience spent, but the wonder and excitement of finally being in Sicily remained intact.

Final Batch of Palermo Pictures

Food, fire, trash, art and architecture; you get a little of everything on a random walk through Palermo. This city is a lot of things, but "boring" could never be considered one of them. Enjoy our last photographic impressions of Sicily's hectic and beautiful capital city.

The Albergheria

The Albergheria is the oldest neighborhood in Palermo. This is where the Phoenicians founded the city, and it hosts the royal palace which all the city's rulers have called home. Despite this rich history, today's Albergheria is one of the most run-down sections of Palermo. Nowhere else is the juxtaposition of dilapidated housing and exquisite historic buildings quite so jarring.

The Picturesque Mountain Hamlet of Sávoca

Hailed as one of Italy's most beautiful villages, the tiny hamlet of Sávoca has a spectacular mountain setting just four kilometers inland from Sicily's eastern coast. Among the legions of people it's charmed is Francis Ford Coppola, who filmed the Sicilian scenes of The Godfather here.

The Views of Taormina

On the last day of our final road-trip through Sicily, we drove a few kilometers up the coast from Catania to Taormina, the island's most popular beach resort. Word of its charm had reached our ears from just about everyone we'd come in contact with: friends, strangers in bars, neighbors, Twitter acquaintances. Even my grandmother called to say that we should really visit Taormina. She's never even been to Sicily and she's been dead for ten years! Phone calls from beyond the grave are pretty persuasive: we had to go.

The Brave Little Towns around Mt. Etna

Our planned ascent to the craters of Mt. Etna had been foiled due to high winds. So finding ourselves with a beautiful, sunny day and nothing else to do, we hopped back in the car and took a long drive around the volcano.

A Day on Mt. Etna

The eastern coast of Sicily is defined by the looming presence of Mount Etna, the largest and most active volcano in Europe. Though it had just erupted spectacularly a few days prior, we couldn't resist checking it out during our final road trip on the island.

Stairway to Caltagirone

Still a healthy city of about 40,000 people, Caltagirone has been home to human activity since prehistoric days. The name comes from the Arabic "qal'at-al-ghiran", or "Hill of Vases", which serves as an indication of how tightly connected to pottery the town has always been. Caltagirone was completely destroyed in the 1693 earthquake that leveled much of eastern Sicily. But like Noto, it was rebuilt in grand style, with a heavy emphasis on Baroque architecture.

Villa Romana del Casale

The world's most comprehensive and exquisite set of Roman mosaics is found in the middle of Sicily, at the archaeological site known as Villa Romana del Casale. The specifics of the villa's history are largely lost to history, but experts have dated its origin to around the 4th century AD. It's believed to have been the hunting lodge for Roman aristocrats, possibly owned by Emperor Maximianus Herculius. But there aren't enough clues to say for certain.