Palermo Book

One after another, footsteps along Palermo’s streets, soles upon its paving stones, trace the shape of opposites. Palermo is poverty and nobility; slowness and theatrical chaos; eccentricity and deference. Palermo is light like nowhere else and darkness that can reach the most remote abysses. Palermo, ultimately, is charm. But a complex charm, never truly accessible. “Palermo is an onion,” Roberto Alajmo would say—for when you think you have reached its heart, it reveals another layer. Thus, this little book aims to be a kind of dictionary. An itinerary through the city’s many selves, moving through the people who have lived it and the words that have told its story; the stories that have inhabited it and the legends that have colored it; passing through its flavors, waves, fragrances, domes, saints, and traditions. It passes through opposites and pierces the layers to unmask the rawest beauty that this city jealously guards.

Book in Italian or English