Palermo - 7 October 2021

One of the joys of these sailing adventures are the surprises on the land, that we just happen to stumble upon. This morning we set off on the twenty minute walk to the laundrette and passed by some incredible buildings. We were also aware, while passing open doorways, that behind the crumbling facades, are often beautiful hallways. We walked past the magnificent theatre in the Piazza G. Verdi.


Having time to kill, while the washing was on, we walked around the block of the residential neighbourhood. This was not tourist land. We happened upon a street full of market stalls, selling meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Here we able to buy superb local produce. We did notice that there were several guided walking tours going through, that stopped at the churches, every few hundred metres, as well as the stalls, so the market must be a land mark in the city and part of trail. It was the locals, and us, though, who were buying. Going shopping like this is great fun and an absolute delight.




Palermo is chaotic, with lots of electric scooters and vesper type scooters whizzing past, even in the pedestrian areas. Cars are double parked everywhere. Sometimes the scooters don’t obey a red traffic light, so you can find that one just misses you on a crossing. I am reminded of a local in Cagliari telling me to have courage, while crossing the road.

We arrived back at the boat not just with a large bag of clean washing, but loaded down with provisions for the next few days.

The weather forecast for today was not good, which is why we are in a very sheltered marina. We managed to get back with the shopping before the expected wind and heavy rain arrived. The marina is not big and seems to be mostly used by charter boats. They offer the spaces to others when the charter boats are out, so we were lucky that this weather was not arriving at the weekend, when the charter fleet returns. Two of the boats, however, have returned early, probably because of the weather, a headache for the marina staff, when they have filled the berths with other boats. I’m not sure how they deal with the possibility of over booking. Ben, the head honcho marinero, had advised us to “see Palermo by just getting lost” and we felt that we had done that today.


Tricia (and Steve)

Distance today               0 miles

Total distance 2021:   414 miles

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