The First Day in Palermo - Arrival and First Discoveries

Today I wanted to tell you about our trip from mainland Italy to the island of Sicily, specifically to the city of Palermo. The first to arrive on these lands were the Phoenicians. They saw the bay, the mountains that seemingly embrace it and two roaring rivers feeding the valley. The Phoenicians founded a city here and named it Zis, meaning flower. The Ancient Greeks called it Panormus, meaning all port. This is a land that can be approached from any point along the coast, welcoming all travelers into its embrace. A flower city, a port city. Beautiful, bright and utterly mesmerizing. This city knows no peace. Here an endless struggle for land, power and influence takes place. Peoples and cultures succeed one another. After the Phoenicians and Greeks come the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, Aragonians, Spaniards and Garibaldians. In the 20th century Palermo became one of the main centers of the Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nostra. And all of this is just a few pages of the city's complex and multi layered history. Today Palermo is the fifth most populous city in Italy. With a population of around 630000, this city is the capital of the island and region of Sicily, one of the greatest centers of the Italian Baroque style and a true gastronomic capital of Italy. Colorful and fascinating, Palermo is the perfect city to start exploring the Italian island of Sicily