A SEPTEMBER WEEKEND IN AND AROUND PALERMO

"Who knows if Iolanda will ever notice me..."

I can't speak for Iolanda, but I noticed him--as I took stock of Palermo and its environs-- a few weekends ago.

Friday:  a walk along the sea wall and then through the neighborhood, where I saw the touching graffiti above and a crew of men setting up lights for the festival of Santa Maria della Mercede.

Saturday:  two contemporary art openings, a fairy tale wedding, and then a carousel of lights in Piazza Sant'Anna.

Sunday:  a five-course tasting menu at La Strummula in Santa Flavia, walked off by a hike to Sant'Elia at the edge of town, its limestone cliffs overlooking a limpid cove where the locals enjoyed a late afternoon swim.  

Just another weekend in and around Palermo.

The date palms along the Foro Italico are bursting with fruit and it still felt like summer that Friday.

But the clouds seen from our bathroom window (surely the best bathroom view ever) give a clue that Fall is on its way.

 

Friday afternoon, the crew of Sant’Anna's parish was installing lights for the Festino di Santa Maria della Mercede, the small church in Piazza Sant’Anna, snugged up against the rear façade of Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi, where the ball scene from Il Gattopardo was filmed.  Energy crisis?  What energy crisis!  It was two days before the national parliamentary elections and bread and circuses were being served in Palermo.  One of the installers told me the lights would be turned on for only a few hours on the weekend, starting at 19:30 on Saturday, and that the church congregation was footing the bill.  He seemed to think this was a fair compromise between faith and foot candles.  

 

On Saturday, we visited an art opening in the cavallerizza (former stables) at Palazzo Sant'Elia.  The artist is Daria Koltsova, a Ukrainian woman who escaped from Kharkiv to Berlin and is currently an artist in residence in Palermo.  She exhibited a diary of her experiences during a brutal siege, including a video of a live horse ridden by a skeleton, reminiscent of the Triomphe di Morte (Triumph of Death) mural at Palazzo Abetellis here in Palermo.  Here is a link, unfortunately in Italian, but we all know how to use Google Translate, right? Koltsova. The exhibition was very affecting.

On our way to the next opening, we came upon another live horse, this one not with a pale rider but with newlyweds in a coach straight out of Disneyland.  They had just tied the knot at City Hall.  He was talking on his cell phone, and she flashed a big smile at the crowd as they  trotted off to Quattro Canti --THE public square--where they alighted so tourists and locals could photograph and video their fantasy.  Nothing says kitsch like Palermitani in love!

The exhibition presented by Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea was also held in a cavallerizza, this one in another 18th c. palazzo in Via Maqueda.  It's rare to see painting as the subject of a contemporary art show, and these works were surprisingly good. 

The artist (so embarrassed to have forgotten her name!) achieved a ghostly transparency between the figure's shirt and the billowing cloth behind him in her depiction of a Horn of Africa pirate.  Now you see him and now you don't--very like the hit and run attacks in the Gulf of Aden.

At 19:30 sharp we made our way to Piazza Sant'Anna for the festival inauguration. The square had been transformed into a carousel of colorful lights.

 and the door to Saint Maria della Mercede was open—the first time I’d seen the interior.  

Sunday dawned clear and warm, so it only seemed right to wring the last drops of summer out of the air and head to the sea and Santa Flavia for lunch.  My husband chose La Strummula (the spinning top), a hotel restaurant which offered a five-course tasting menu.   

The restaurant is located in the tufo stone cellars of the hotel.  The room was very evocative and the food was divine.  (Apologies for the fuzzy photo, cached from the Internet.)

We started with two different antipasti--

Ceviche salad of mussels, gamberetti (baby shrimp), and clams with finely diced vegetables and croutons served in a clam broth emulsion. 

Followed by

Sword fish cakes rolled in black bread and sauteed until crisp, served on a cream of smoked eggplant.

 

Then came the pasta course.

 

Fresh pasta buttons stuffed with potato and Sicilian provola cheese, served with Luciana-style octopus consommé of tomato, garlic, red pepper, olive oil, and - of course -baby octopus.

The main course was also fish-based.

Poached lampuga (local fish) served with potato cream, red onion in agrodolce, and topped with a crispy-fried sardine, floating on a puddle of zucchini reduction.

 

One would have thought dessert would be next, but no.  We were served an intra-meal amuse bouche in the form of a spinning top, the restaurant's eponymous dish.

 

A very thin, sweet cookie shell filled with fresh ricotta, candied fruit, and chocolate chips, covered in gold leaf, sitting on a bed of crunchy chocolate cookie.   Holy canoli!  It was pretty amazing.  But wait...here comes the real dessert!

A sugary meringue tent sheltering a tart lemon mousse flavored with delicate herbs floating on airy mascarpone, with a pillow of brioche on the side.  My goodness!  Camping was never like this!

Filtering out of the restaurant and into the sun now low in the sky, we made our way on foot to a fishing village called Sant'Elia, just beyond Santa Flavia at land's end.  The water was limpid and lazy, the cliffs white and gleaming as swimmers dove off the rocks and a couple enjoyed their 5 o'clock swim.

My passion for Sicily is born of its landscape:  delicate yet harsh, accessible yet inscrutable, calm yet jarring, of the moment yet timeless.  It's a challenge offered and willingly accepted.

Keep it real!

Marilyn

By the way, those lights in Piazza Sant'Anna for the Festival of Santa Maria delle Mercede were up and on for over a week.  Mercy me!