Page 99 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

The Albergheria

The district bounded by Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, just northwest of
Stazione Centrale – the Albergheria – can’t have changed substantially for several
hundred years. Although there are proud palazzi on Via Maqueda itself, the real heart
of the quarter is in the sprawling warren of tiny streets away from the main roads. The

central core is taken up by the Ballarò, one of Palermo’s liveliest street markets, and
there are several fine churches interspersed among the tall, blackened and leaning
buildings.

Il Gesù

Via Ponticello • Daily 7am–noon & 4–6.30pm

The most spectacular of the Albergheria’s churches is Il Gesù, or Casa Professa,
topped by a green-and-white-patterned dome. The first Jesuit foundation in Sicily, it
was begun in the mid-sixteenth century and took over a hundred years to complete. It
was later almost entirely rebuilt following bomb damage in World War II, and there
are still signs of the devastation in the surrounding streets. The reconstruction has been

impressively thorough, and the church’s awesome interior, a glorious Baroque swirl
of inlaid marble, majolica, intricate relief work and gaudily painted ceiling, takes
some time to absorb.

Piazza Ballarò market

Market Mon–Sat, usually from 5am until around 1pm

Piazza Ballarò is the focus of a raucous daily fruit and vegetable market that starts
early in the morning. Gleaming fish curl their heads and tails in the air, squashes come
as long as baseball bats, and vine leaves trail decoratively down from stalls. There
are some very cheap snack bars here, too, where you can sidle in among the locals and
sample sliced-open sea urchins, fried artichokes and beer, along with unmarked

drinking dens and gutsy snack stalls selling pane e milza and pane e panelle. Don’t
leave the area without visiting Rosciglione, creators of the best cannoli in town.

At the southern end of Piazza Ballarò, the bright majolica-tiled dome of the
seventeenth-century church of Santa Maria del Carmine looms above Piazza del
Carmine, a singular landmark amid the market stalls and rubbish-strewn alleys.

San Nicolò
Via Nasi • Usually open Tues & Sat 10.30am–12.30pm • Donation expected

The Torre di San Niccolò started life as a watchtower in thirteenth-century Palermo,
but in 1518 it was co-opted by the adjacent church as a campanile. These days you can
climb the 84 steps to the top for an unsurpassed birds’-eye view of the market, teeming