Yesterday was our tour of Palermo. Our guide was Fabrizio and he was terrific. There were only 11 of us in the group so Fabrizio was able to wait for me between stops. The tour took about an hour longer than scheduled because of me being slow, but everyone was very graceful and didn’t seem to mind waiting. The colds that we were trying to convince ourselves were allergies reared their ugly head, so we were both coughing and sneezing. It seems that every time we come to Europe, and only to Europe, we get a cold. The same thing used to happen to my dad so I guess it is familial, although Alan gets them too.

We met the group in the Piazza Olivella in front of the Archeology Museum. The piazza is small but quintessentially Italian. We were early so got to enjoy it for about an hour.

Street near Piazza

From there, we walked down narrow streets, stopping at the puppet theater, just to glance in, as it wasn’t open this early.

Teatro Massimo

We walked on and reach the very large, outdoor food market known as the Capo market. Since this was a food tour, we stopped at the entrance for sfincionello from Julio’s cart. This is a grilled bread and tomato snack and was really good.

One of the remaining Palermo City Gates

Julio’s Cart

We then begin walking inside the market. The fresh fish and the vegetables were amazing.

Spice merchant

We stopped again at a stand that specialized in Sicilian fried foods. We had arancine (rice and meat balls), potato croquettes and a chickpea crepe.

Arancina

Before leaving the market, Fabrizio asked if anyone wanted to try a spleen sandwich. Since it is one of the organ meats neither Alan nor I had ever had, we volunteered. It was actually good, like shredded meat with lots of parmesan cheese.

Raw spleen and lung and Fabrizio

Spleen sandwich

We left the market behind and headed over to the Cathedral, Our Lady of the Assumption. As with most Italian cathedrals, this one was magnificent inside and out. The outside has a combination of Arab and Gothic architecture.

Outside of Cathedral

Inside of Cathedral

Inside the dome

We left the Cathedral and headed over to the area known as Quattro Canti or Four Corners. This is at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda, the two main streets of the old part of Palermo. Each facade is decorated with a fountain, statues of patron saints, statues of the seasons, and statues of Spanish kings.

Our last stop was for cannoli and coffee. We ate and drank it way too fast for pictures. Then it was walking back to the hotel, a nap, and getting ready to go to Ethan’s great friend Luca’s father’s apartment for dinner. We ordered an uber and when we got outside, found that torrential rain was coming down. Of course, we couldn’t find the uber at first, and to say we got wet, is putting it mildly. The uber driver stopped a few blocks from Fabrizio’s apartment and we wandered around looking for it. Yes, Luca’s dad’s name is also Fabrizio, that is not a typo. We were friends with Fabrizio and his late wife Eugenia in Albuquerque, and looked forward to seeing him. Finally, Alan found the apartment in a pedestrian mall, and in we went.

Fabrizio loves to cook and we had an amazing meal. First drinks and munchies, then bruschettai, one a smoked salmon one and one a swordfish one. Then Fabrizio made an octopus risotto, with home-cooked octopus. Then he had made a red snapper baked in salt and served with a tonnato sauce. Amazing. He bought dessert at a pastry shop. it was called La Torta Setteveli, or seven veils cake. A truly amazing dinner and it was such fun catching up with him.

Fabrizio using his surgical skills to remove the pin bones.

The rain had stopped when we left so we walked to a taxi stand and got back to the hotel with no problem.

This morning, we walked around the neighborhood for about 1 1/2 hours, came back, Alan napped, then we had a meeting to start of the tour. Everyone but me then went to the puppet show, and then to a couple of wine bars for tasting. Hopefully Alan took some pictures and will complete the day.

Alan writing now. (October 20, Sunday) It’s a good thing that we didn’t arrange to meet BJ at the puppet theater, because the one we walked to was a different one and quite a bit farther away.

13th Century building

Post Office. Architecture is typical of Fascist WWII period

Puppet Theater

Puppet makers’ workshop

Puppet and backdrop

The puppet show was interesting and funny and the puppets are really lifelike. Then we walked around a bit more and stopped at a wine bar for olives, crackers and potato chips. Then walked a bit farther to another wine bar and restaurant, where we ate caponata, fried chick pea crackers, fried zucchine, and fried artichoke hearts. And, of course, we drank more wine.

Sicilian wines are very good, but they don’t export much wine. I left early to bring something for BJ to eat, and, while walking back, stopped to listen to someone playing Mozart and Beethoven piano sonatas on an electric keyboard. He played well, and it was much better than no classical music.

Garibaldi Theater

When I got back to the hotel, I tried to let BJ know I was downstairs by messaging her, calling on WhatsApp, and facetime, but her phone never made any noise. Finally, she came down to get me. We’ll call it an early night tonight and will add the pictures from my afternoon and evening tomorrow.

Monday is a tour of Capo Market, free afternoon, then dinner out. BJ is going to skip the market and nurse her cold. Alan will see how his cold is. Until then…