Page 107 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Via Roma and Via Garibaldi

Starting out from Stazione Centrale, there doesn’t seem too much along modern Via
Roma to get excited about, but many of the side streets are traditionally devoted to
particular trades and commerce. Ironmongery, wedding dresses, baby clothes and

ceramics all have their separate enclaves, while the pavements of narrow Via Divisi
are chock-full of stacked bikes from a series of cycle shops. Via Divisi itself runs to
Piazza della Rivoluzione, from where the 1848 uprising began, marked by an oddly
elaborate fountain. From here, Via Garibaldi marks the route that Garibaldi took in
May 1860 when he entered the city; at Via Garibaldi 23, the immense, battered

fifteenth-century Palazzo Aiutamicristo keeps bits of its original Catalan-Gothic
structure.