Immersing yourself in the historic center of Palermo will reveal the heart of the city, with its ancient street markets filled of colors, scents, and traditional ” abbanniate ”, the characteristic songs sung at the top of the vendors’ lungs to sell their merchandise.
The Capo market, short for Caput Seralcadi, the ancient name of the district that has hosted the market since the time of Arab rule, is now one of the city’s main attractions. It is the market for locals and others, tourists, onlookers, excursionists, all fascinated by the lively displays of fruits, vegetables, fish, spices and meats…and what prices! Small but precious masterpieces of Baroque architecture are revealed to the incredulous eyes of passersby. A few meters from the market entrance is the Church of the Immaculate Conception built in the 1600s, a triumph of Baroque that few people know about, a riot of allegories, mixed and polychrome marble.
The Vucciria, which in dialect means ”confusion,” was anciently the place used for slaughtering and selling meat. Later it became a market for the sale of fish, fruit and vegetables, but one must go very early in the morning otherwise one risks finding the ”balate,” the marble slabs of the stalls, empty. Today it has become a stage for Palermo’s movida and street food, thanks to the many bars and taverns that sell their products at competitive prices. It was made famous by the painting of Sicilian painter Renato Guttuso, who in 1974 portrayed ”Vucciria of Palermo,” a riot of colors and merchandise that is an icon of our tradition in Italy and abroad.
Ballarò, the popular market par excellence and also the most extensive: it begins in the vicinity of the central station and continues on Via Maqueda, one of the historic arteries of the old city to Casa Professa, a Baroque jewel worth visiting, where a second-hand clothing sale is also set up in the square of the same name. Ballarò is certainly the most picturesque market of ”grascia,” that is, food products that come from the countryside. Don’t miss the street vendors selling typical street food products for which the city has become famous.