Italia 2011: Palermo Day One

Yesterday after I posted at that nasty internet cafe, I headed over the the station with all my stuff and grabbed a dinner of McDonalds Chocolate Sundae. Now, you may be thinking "she's crazy! She's in Italy but instead is eating indian food and McDonalds all in the same day! Blasphemy!" but let me explain... as great as Italian food is, there isn't really a whole lot of variety. You've got simple carbs, tomato sauces, cream sauces, cheese, and not a ton else.

Then I sat on the floor of the station for 5 hours because there's no seating. Finally at 9:20pm the train showed up and I got on and found my cabin. There are 4 "couchettes" (beds) per cabin. I had requested an all-female cabin, and was with 2 sicilian ladies (a mother and daughter). The 4th bed was free. I had a top bunk. Each bed had a bottle of water and a little pouch with a travel toothbrush and a packet of toothpaste for free! This train ride was such an amazing deal in general. It cost me 66 euros (about $90) in one direction. The ride was 13 hours, and I had an insanely comfortable bed to sprawl out on, plus tons of shelf space, a locking door, A/C, a light to read by, a blanket, a pillow, a bottle of water, and the toothbrush/toothpaste. To put this in perspective... a 90 minute train ride between Florence and Rome, where you get a seat and very little leg room, costs 45 euros. Plus taking the train overnight meant that I saved on a hotel! Awesome awesome awesome.

(Side note: Who in their right mind takes small children on a 13 hour train trip?)

Anyways... after I brushed my teeth and read a couple chapters, I stuck in my iPod and let Moby and Joanna Newsom put me to sleep. I woke up around 9am. We had already crossed the water (apparently the train gets loaded into a ferry one car at a time. I slept right through that). Shortly after I awoke, my cabin-mates disembarked somewhere around Messina, and I had the cabin to myself for the remaining 4 hours. It was awesome lounging back and watching the stunning Sicilian countryside go by. It's so gorgeous... incredible hills and mountains, and such great colours... burnt orange dirt and brush, dark green vegetation, silvery blue olive trees...

When we arrived in Palermo, I got a cab to my hotel. I got an incredible deal on a 4star hotel downtown Palermo, and was worried that it might be run down or something, but it's great (besides the flimsy half-ply kleenex)! I have a nice view from the 8th floor. My room is a very decent size by european standards. It's clean and not run-down and has all necessary amenities like a safe and a minifridge and a TV and a hairdryer. Apparently breakfast is served on the rooftop terrace!

After I had a much-needed shower, I set out to explore Palermo. I could tell immediately that I REALLY love this city (more on that below)! And I FINALLY found somewhere to recharge my phone credit. Then I sought out a place to eat. Unfortunately it was about 2:30pm meaning nearly everything was closed, but I found an open restaurant in the Vuccirio area and decided I'd give it a shot. It ended up being really good! The first point was scored when the bread came out... All my experiences of getting bread anywhere else I've been in Italy (Rome and north) has been that bread is stale, even in the nicest restaurants, and it's really only worth consuming if you have a lot of liquidy stuff on your plate that you want to soak up. The bread at the place I had lunch was actually fresh! And soft! With crusty edges! Then I ordered Bistecca alla Palermitana (Steak Palermo-Style). It was really delicious... thin, breaded and cooked in oil. It was very tender and flavourful. Way better than any of the times I've attempted to have Bistecca alla Fiorentina (Steak Florence-Style), which seems to just be a big, tough, flavourless T-bone. The waiter at the restaurant was extremely nice and said "you are welcome to stay here and read. We're closing up because it is time to nap, but feel free to stay and read on the patio".

I didn't stay though. I had a city to see! I did my best to go see all the main squares and sites that I'd written down. I also had the goal of finding an AMAZING gelato place. However, after walking in the sun for quite a while, and then getting lost in an unappealing residential area, my plan changed to "must find any gelato place". I had some decent gelato. FYI my new go-to flavour is yogurt. It's extremely refreshing! My other food goal for this week is to have the best cannoli of my life...

At one point in my exploration, I tried getting to the Mercato di Ballarò, which I'd heard was a very lively market. Two minutes after finding it, I realized "merda! I'm the only female walking around!". (This happened to me once before this summer... on a Sunday morning in Pistoia, when apparently it's time for all the men to go walking around with their buddies and their babies).

It also doesn't help here that I stick out like a sore thumb in a region where everyone has skin the colour of a burnt cannoli shell. I, on the other hand, have pasty skin as white as, well, cannoli filling.

Now I'm back at the hotel. One of the first things I did was to look up a bunch of words in Italian, so that when people ask me what I think of Palermo, I'll be equipped with an adequate vocabulary of adjectives. Such as:

-vivace (vibrant)

-animato (lively)

-rumoroso (cacophonous)

-puzzolente (smelly)

Below are some pictures I took today. Enjoy! I'm off to hopefully find somewhere good for dinner and maybe some cannoli!