Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Real Palermo

Palermo is an Italian metropolis and is actually quite a large city. Most visitors get a glimpse of the historic centre and the town of Monreale but see little of the city's "real life."

I decided to wander past the famous attractions and spent a Saturday on the promenade near the port.  I could compare this place to Bombay's Marine Drive, as there are a lot of smiliarities. You can see a cross section of Palermo society on this promenade. Couples, families, groups of young people and of course joggers!

The big difference between Marine Drive and the Palermo promenade is the fact that the latter faces the east, so no beautiful sunset by the sea.

The entire area around the port reverberates with energy. I also enjoyed watching future football stars in action and had a Spaghetti ai Ricci (With sea urchins) at a roadside restaurant. 4 days later, I didn't get poisoned and so I can say that was a good experience. The people running the place were yelling at each other in a Palermo dialect. They sure did remind me of Sicilian Americans near the South Street Seaport in New York.

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