Forgetting Palermo? The city where the trees stretch for dozens of meters, where beauty is besieged by the ravages of time. Where it is difficult to achieve your ambitions unless you leave, far from this land on the edge of Europe.
The best time to visit Palermo? Any time. Did you know that Palermo is, statistically, the warmest city in Italy in winter and the coolest in summer?
Do you work from home? Why a grey and cold place instead of a beautiful one? Perhaps you would be envious to know that today, 26 February, it is 18°C and people are at the beach.
In a quiet and elegant residential area, close to the historic and cultural centre of Palermo, a UNESCO site for Arab-Norman architecture.
Entering through the gate of the complex you can park in any available private parking space.The building is just opposite the entrance where the doorman's house is located; from the main door after a few steps you are at the entrance to the flat. The door opens directly onto the very pleasant, mainly black and white dining room. The dining room continues onto a veranda with mosquito net adjoining the terrace. On the opposite side the dining room opens onto the fully equipped kitchen. The living room leads to the sleeping area: 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms; a large double bedroom with French window with mosquito net opening onto the terrace, a second bedroom with French bed with French window with mosquito net (all opening like a curtain) onto the terrace; these two bedrooms share a full bathroom. There is a third single bedroom/study with bathroom. All windows overlook the garden. The third bedroom/study and the kitchen are also equipped with fixed mosquito nets.
What about Palermo? Palermo is one of the most beautiful cities in Italy and certainly its private villas - many of which you can visit - are even more beautiful and richer than in Milan, Venice, Florence. (Frankly, I don't know Naples ;-)).
The architecture ranges from the Arab period, to the Norman period, to Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau without interruption. You can continue your discoveries for months.
The museums will show you a new aspect of Italian culture. Do the French have Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa'? But what makes the haughty, cold beauty of her hinting smile any more beautiful than the serene, inward, profound yet sensual beauty of Antonello da Messina's 'Annunciata'?
Churches then, not being under strict papal influence, make Christianity seem radiant when not playful.
Lush nature frames the beauty of the architecture all year round and the mild temperatures bring joy in all seasons except, for us, January.
In the period from the end of September to the first weekend in November, the municipal administration opens its hidden treasures to visits, walks and unmissable experiences. Unfortunately, you will have to come back year after year to enjoy them all.
At home you will find the brochure and my letter for a walk around the town to discover its main aspects: the Cala the old port with its castle, and the new port of Palermo for pleasure boats, the exceptional churches of Serpotta, our ice creams (they have a secret that makes them unique champions of goodness), the garden with the largest tree in Europe, the city palace with the wonderful square and the Arab-Norman wonders around it, the Cathedral, the Royal Palace, a real treasure, our Market "il Capo" where you can find gastronomic delicacies and finally the Massimo Theatre, the third theatre in Europe after the Paris Opera and the Vienna Opera. What else? The Politeama Theatre, originally built to house circuses...
It will be difficult to leave the beauty of the city but do so and go to Mondello, our beach. I'm sure, the most beautiful in Italy, go there for a sunbath, a walk, to eat street food in the village of Mondello.
Do you want, as I suggest, to work and spend a year in Palermo? Send your children to international school or baccalauréat? Use Via Giusti as a base to explore the unique beauty of Sicily? Extraordinary adventures among amazing islands, volcanoes as active as they are effusive, splendid seas, bold mountains, forests, relics of all the Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Arab, French, Spanish and English cultures...
