Palermo
| Title: | Palermo | |||||||
| Category: | Destinations We Visit on Our Sicily Mainland Vacations | |||||||
| Author: | Daniele Pintaudi | Updated: | Jan 30, 2019 | Views: | 5,128 | |||
| Tags: | palermo visit palermo palermo street market palermo food tour | |||||||
Palermo is the capital of Sicily, as well as its largest city with a population of just under 700,000 residents.
Palermo is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old. Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The city was founded by the Phoenicians, but named by the Ancient Greeks as Panormus meaning 'always fit for landing in.' Palermo became part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. From 827 to 1071 it was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when it first became a capital. Following the Norman reconquest, Palermo became capital of a new kingdom (from 1130 to 1816), the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually it would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.
Palermo is very famous for its extremely lively markets that very much resemble that of an African Bazaar. Because of this, during our Sicilian vacations, we focus heavily on Palermo's active food markets.