"Okay! I'll arrive Friday evening around 08.00. Done deal!"
Monica also offered me to use her holiday home, an apartment in the university district of Palermo which was free at the moment. Arriving and preparing for the evening, he took me to a restaurant in the center of the city, where two Sicilian chefs make Sicilian meals with international influences. Their goal is to use good ingredients from all over the world to cook a typical Sicilian dish. But a light touch of international cuisine cannot be missing.
The full program on Saturday began with breakfast in a bar at the port and then we were ready to visit the city. Walking towards the Teatro Massimo he told me a lot of curiosities about Palermo and some secrets that a tour guide would never tell you, including some that gave me shivers. We visited the most famous points such as the "Quattro canti", the Palace
of the Normans, the Fontana Pretoria, some of the 85 churches of Palermo and in the end we ended up at the Ballarò market. The vendors shouted loudly behind the stalls while scents of all kinds filled my nose. A little boy, the son of a butcher, told me: that if I bought a piece of the half goat that was placed on a table next to their stall, he would even give me the tail. Tasting a lot of good things we had managed to leave the market.
Before leaving towards Monte Pellegrino we had a sandwich with spleen, cheese and lemon from "ca' meusa", in a famous sandwich shop right in the port of Palermo. From Monte Pellegrino you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the entire city, the port and the Tyrrhenian sea. Looking for a bit of shade, the sirocco was blowing lightly and I wanted to swim in the sea; in the sea that shone 600 meters below us... but we didn't have time. Returning to the city we stopped at Monica's country house to pick up some vegetables from the garden and we plunged into the crazy traffic of Palermo. When I arrived at the apartment, my guide advised me to relax a bit, since we were supposed to go out with his friends in the evening. He gave me the name of a bar in "La Kalsa", the port and nightlife district of Palermo and we agreed to meet there around 08.00 - 08.30 in the evening.
Once I got off the bus in the center I decided to take a short walk since I was a little early (and Sicilians are usually not very punctual). The bars were crowded, the waiters brought rivers of spritzes and wine to the tables and the air was filled with
scent of marijuana. Suddenly a hand gripped my shoulder tightly and a
trusting voice shouted: "Miiiii...!!! Giusè!!!" It was my dear friend Mimmo who held me in a strong hug... I felt as if a bear was hugging me.
Chatting with Mimmo I discovered that I was already in the bar where Monica and the others would also arrive.
Dancing and laughing, discussing and singing we spent the night in Palermo until the sun greeted us from Capo safferano. When I arrived at the apartment around 08.00 in the morning I was very tired and slept until late in the afternoon. In the evening I returned to my beloved apartment in Montallegro, near Agrigento and having dinner at Luigi, the owner of the pizzeria in front of my apartment, I realized what a great gift Monica, Mimmo and the others had given me. I was able to feel the heartbeat of Palermo with all the smells, the noise, the silence, the happiness... and I could see the city through the eyes of a Palermo native.
Thanks for all this little guys!