Day 2, Palermo, The Markets, Sept 26-2024

Day 2 of the tour, Breakfast started at 7 am and we were to meet at 9:30 in the lobby to begin our walking tour:

Our itinerary reads: Begin your adventure tasting your way through Palermo's lively markets on a walking tour unveiling the city's historical center and introducing you to traditional Sicilian street food, which layers Oriental and Norman influences with local produce such as wild fennel, olives, and spices.

Our group of 24 was divided into 2 groups, one group of 12 and one of 10. A couple of people opted out. The 2nd group was lead by Francesca above, who was very cute and animated. She was full of information and shared with us her childhood memories of the area, the food and the vendors. Group 2 was a bit delayed departing due to some technical issues with Vbox. Standing with Angelica is Vera and Joe from Australia. Visiting Sicily was especially important to them as they both have family in Sicily.

We started with The Capo Market, which was very colorful and busy with lots of fresh vegetables, and fish and other goodies.

Here they were squeezing fresh juice

I don't know what dishes we were looking at, but everything looked colorful and fresh.

We sampled as we walked the market, stopping at several vendors as we listen to Francesca tell us about the history and food. Wasn't able to get pictures of those stops, as our hands were busy eating. Here we actually sat down. On the left front to back is Don, Mike, Kathy, Joe, Vera. Across from Vera is Steve, Susan, Lucille, I was beside Lucille and then Ernie.

She's showing us wild Fennel

Olives, that aren't edible as they've not been processed.

We had a meat pie of sorts, a potato...sorta like a pancake, grapes and other fruit.

Continuing our walk through the market you can see the variety of foods...naturally pasta. I'm in the black on the right with a straw hat.

Taking pictures as we walk, you can see how crowded the market was, though we were told it's not as crowded as it used to be.

Lots of yummy goodies

Check out the huge cannoli!

While this isn't the best of pictures, you can see the longevity of this families business in the market. Francesca remembered being here with her grandmother who knew the original owner. It's still the same family.

By this time we had entered the 2nd market, but I don't remember the name. There are 4 historical markets in Palermo: Capo, Ballaro, LaVucciria, and Borgo Vecchio. Our 2 quilters in the group, Anne and Lynn really wanted to stop and see some of the fabric shops we passed, but the tour continue walking.

A street alter. They were beginning to prepare for a holiday festival and parade.

We stopped in a little bar to have some desert wine. I'm not generally a fan of sweet/desert wine; but it was rather tasty and refreshing.

Walking on you see vendors grilling

You pass more goodies

Then we stopped for quick desert break and had delicious cannoli's.

Time to board our coach to return to the hotel. Hubby liked that our coach was scarlet and gray, Ohio States colors, lol. We'll have time to freshen up (30 ish minutes), then re-board the coach to make our way to Monreale Cathedral.

Since this post is heavy with pictures, the afternoon at Monreale Cathedral will be the next post.

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Below are pictures Ellen got as we walked to and through the markets. A couple of interesting buildings, an apt, beautiful fruit, and other wonderful food goodies. Ellen was in group 1. I don't know if both groups walked the same path to get to the market, but assume they did. Nice shots Ellen!