Reader\'s Digest IN 02.2020

Reader’s Digest

104 february 2020

take-off to landing with only a break

to buy a scratch card from the stew-

ardess. “In Naples,” Domenico says,

“all hell is sure to break loose, but

they know it will be OK. In Palermo,

we just pray all hell doesn’t break loose

in the first place.”

D

rive 30 minutes out of the city

in spring to the fishing village of

Sferracavallo, and eat fresh sea-

urchin spaghetti while watching the

multicoloured fishing boats rocking

so intensely beyond the sharp rocks

that when you get up to leave you

walk with a sailor’s roll.

A little closer to town is the resort

of Mondello, where wealthy paler-

mitani built elegant weekend villas

in the early 1900s, and where from

June to October crowds of school-

free teenagers buy ice cream at the

seafront gelateria Latte Pa. Fourteen-

year-old girls with salt-mussed hair

Pastries on display in Palermo

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TRAVEL TIPS

lodging: Gorgeously romantic and

elegant, BB22 lies behind a rundown

square whose few remaining residents

play tango records out of their win-

dows at night and passers-by stop to

dance. Via Pantelleria 22 (Angolo

Largo Cavalieri di Malta), doubles from

110 euros, bb22.it. Tucked away in the

ancient Arab quarter, Chez Jasmine

has a little roof terrace overlooking a

church dotted with hundreds of swal-

lows. Vicolo dei Nassaiuoli 15, there

are only two rooms, priced from

75 euros, chezjasmine.biz.

dining: Trattoria Torremuzza

serves fresh swordfish cooked on bra-

ziers in the street, and a caponata with

flaked almonds worth crossing the city

for. Walk to Ilardo around the corner

for ice cream afterward. Via Torre-

muzza 21, about 40 euros for two.

Two minutes’ walk from the Teatro

Massimo, the small Trattoria Del

Massimo serves the best ragu or spa-

ghetti with seafood. Plazza Guiseppe

Verdi 25/26, about 40 euros for two.

what to do: Via Chiavettieri is

the best street for people watching.

It comes to life after 5 p.m., when bar

owners put out their tables and start

serving wine and olives. By 11 p.m. the

street is packed. The anti-pizzo (extor-

tion) movement runs deeply personal

walking tours about the history of the

mafia in Sicily and the civil anti-mafia

movement in Palermo that is finally

rebelling against it, addiopizzotravel.it.

1 euro was `80.64 at the time of going to press.