Sicily suprised me
 

Travelling through Sicily is a beautiful experience. I was very surprised with Palermo because my expectations were rather low. I spent some time there this week. It is an incredible city to see with a friendly, laid back atmosphere. Heck, it does have 1.2 million residents, but it wasn't very crowded, except at the hours of 7 when everyone is out to go for drinks. I tried Tribeca for sushi and drinks one night. It was very fresh, the tempura prawns were out of this world. The other stand out lounges are Cuba and 161. Both have outdoor areas and were crowded. Thankfully they had heat lamps since the air was cool at night. Both are upscale and trendy, but Cuba is more of a restaurant with tables to sit and order wine. A sicilian dish that is fantastic is linguini with olives, capers, and tomatoes. Another special is a breaded ball stuffed with various local vegetables or even pasta. And the obvious artichokes, canoli, almond cookies and ring pasta. Another restaurant I enjoyed was the Charleston, which is a restaurant on the water in Mondello, the beach area of Palermo. The water is crystal clear and a bright blue green. There is a fishermans village within walking distance of fruit stands, street vendors, and about a dozen inexpensive seafood and pizza restaurants. There is also a rustic mini golf course across from the Charleston but it was closed because of the season, I suppose. Palermo is gentrifying and working hard to promote tourism. If you visit this year, you will not walk down a street without spotting the red promotional signs. They have quotes posted up from travel magazines and newspapers around the world giving Palermo two thumbs up. Sicily is very sophisticated without pretension.

Hi thornyroses! we also were surprised and delighted by Sicily. I loved the Greek and Roman ruins; my companion loved the clean beaches, clear warm seas. Everyone was friendly and welcoming and the food was to die for. We spent very little time in Palermo, but headed to the south coast and then to the eastern end of the island. The only downside is traffic! Italians tend to drive like maniacs, passing cars that are passing cars. Stop signs? are you kidding! But we have now been to Sicily twice, and plan to go again. It has so much history and it is a big island. Can't see it all in just a couple of trips.

Thornyroses and ngarona, I would be interested in knowing what has initially caused you both to be hesitant about Sicily ("...my expectations were rather low..." - "...we also were surprised...").

Where did this come from?

While I'm glad you liked it, I'm baffled because it has always been known, as far as I had heard and read, as a cradle of civilization, with all that Greek history and then later the Romsn and now Italian aspects, and the distinct culture and food and dialect etc. - a fabulous place and I wonder what might have given it a "bad rap" in other parts of the world?

BTW - where are you both from?

Thanks for clearing up this mystery for me.

WallyKringen, I suspect that when most people hear "Sicily", they also hear "Mafia", "poverty", "primitive".

In my experience, relatively few people are aware of Sicily's many-layered past, and even fewer people really care about it.

There is nothing in Thornyroses' report, for example, to indicate that she looked for anything else in Sicily but restaurants and nightclubs...

Eloise, thanks for your thoughts. When you say " relatively few people..." - where might these people come from, do you think? Is it a US-American perception maybe? Because of Hollywood overdoing one aspect or another as usual?

I am not ignoring the facts about the Cosa Nostra, but you don't see that in Sicily, just as you don't see the ETA criminals in San Sebastian or the gangland hoodlums in US cities or the new breed of gangsters in Moscow when simply visiting. And poverty is relative as the world saw when the pre-hurricane realities about life in New Orleans became public...

Still baffled why Sicily seems to be so misunderstood. Maybe the tourism commission of Sicily has its work cut out - a sustained media blitz might be in order?

I have not -- yet -- been to Sicily, but it is high on my list of places I need to see. My mother went alone, twice, in her 70s, and always raved about it & strongly encouraged all of her children to visit. Just saying: not every American has low expectations about Sicily, by any stretch of the imagination!

Maybe I missed where thornyroses suggested she had low expectations for Sicily. I did see where she had low expectations for Palermo, and admittedly so did I. I had always heard Palermo (not all of Sicily) was "mafia", dirty, noisy, crowded, and not very attractive. But then I also heard all those things about Naples too. I found both to be wrong.

In the late 1800s, the economy in Sicily collapsed--it was not the richest part of Italy to begin with, and it became extremely poor and backward in terms of infrastructure. For decades thereafter, Sicily was one of the poorer and less developed parts of Italy. The population was largely illiterate and unemployment rampant--millions left the island to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Crime flourished, and though the Fascists temporarily quashed Mafia activity (many members of the Mafia were imprisoned or emigrated to other countries, including the USA) they made a comeback at the end of WWII.

Sicily has made some strides recently as Mafia control has slipped somewhat, but for most of the 20th century Sicily was not the most inviting of tourist destinations. It is still one of the poorer areas of Italy.

This is probably where low expectations come from--it's hard to get people to forget the past; especially when it's the recent past and many of the conditions, although improved, still exist.

Hi all: I don't think Sicily was so much a matter of low expectations, I just was not aware of the wealth of antiquities and the beauty of the island. And of course, there is all the bad press about the Mafia. (It seems to me that one is more likely to be mugged in Chicago than in Sicily; the Mafia is not interested in the average tourist.) (Chicago residents please forgive me).
There is so much press about beautiful Tuscany, the jewel that is Venice, etc. So Sicily is rather neglected in the press and and travel reports like "the place to go this season..."
In any event, I found Sicily to be an amazing destination.

Thanks for these points of view. Glad that we all agree in the end that, surprise or not, Sicily (including Palermo) is worthy of our attention as a travel destination.

Arrivederla.