Palermo

Palermo (from Panormus, all port, for the Romans), the capital of Sicily, is closed between the sea and the mountains and its port, already large in itself, seems even more so wrapped by promontories and mountains, around which the splendid Sicilian city takes place. The Zyz (flower) of the Phoenicians (VII-VI century BC) is a Sicilian history book: from prehistory to the present day. Palermo is a unique city in the world because it is really bizarre the clear and palpable feeling, for those who visit it, to walk inside a centrifuge of millenary history, where traces of cultures and architectures Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Aragonese etc. overlap each other sometimes creating completely new architectural styles or simply designed by chance, which continuously evoke emotions to those who visit it.

There is not a Palermo inhabitant who, at least once in his life, has not climbed on foot to the top of Monte Pellegrino, the most beautiful promontory in the world according to the German poet Goethe when he arrived in Sicily in 1787 during the Grand Tour (XVII-XVIII century), one of those aristocratic popular trips in 1700 to discover the treasures of antiquity which had southern Italy as a privileged destination. The climb to Mount Pellegrino starts from the center of Palermo and reaches the top of the mountain where the sanctuary (17th century) built around the cave that was the home of the “Santuzza” Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo. From the mountain you can enjoy a spectacular view of the city of Palermo, surrounded by mountains and embraced by the sea. In this stretch traveled by the little girl with her mother and little brother, you have an exciting cross-section of Sicily: the lush and varied vegetation with prickly pears that cling everywhere, the white stone, the blue sky. At the top you can see the imposing neo-Gothic structure of Castello Utveggio (1928), once a luxury hotel.

(photo) Palermo, the port and Pellegrino cape, 1847