Mon 10.Jul.2023
Palermo, Sicily
Imagery - May 2023
The day in day out reality of Palermo is urban streets. Of course, one urban street looks like
another when you show them at street level, so to speak.
What I really notice on urban streets - besides the people - are the details, which will bring
us soon enough back to signs and street art.
By their claim to fame shall ye know them.
We didn't invent Toast,
we made it EXTRAORDINARY.
'Nuff said!
I had no trouble finding a laundromat in Palermo, and finding my way to it. There it was,
with washers and dryers and instructions and everything ... except a business sign identifying it.
Just an unmarked anonymous storefront!
While my laundry was in the dryer, these two guys showed up. By the time
I was done and gone, The Blue Bubbles laundromat looked like you would expect of a business.
Detail from the yacht harbor.
A back street through a scruffy-looking neighborhood. A treat for the eyes, scruffy or not!
Arancine!
Sicily's great street food!
Fist-sized rice balls, stuffed and deep fried. In western Sicily, most arancine are ball-shaped.
In the east,
they are usually pointed on top - some say in honor of Etna. Either way, they are handy, tasty,
filling, and everywhere.
A language oddity: in western Sicily, the word arancina is feminine. (pl:
arancine). In eastern Sicily the word is masculine: arancino (pl:
arancini)! Go figure!
When in Sicily, take their word for it!)
A friend in Greece told me that I'd notice a lot of Greek words in Sicilian Italian. This one
jumped out at me - FOTO FOUR. Tessera (adj: tetra) is as Greek as it gets.
Do the men have their own paper bags?
Here we are again - beyond. Spelled in Greek letters, just so there is no missing the point.