Palermo is a city that lives 365 days a year, always full of folklore happenings, sports events and concerts that will turn your holiday into an unforgettable experience.
Among the events related to the popular tradition, we cannot miss the Feast of St. Rosalia and the Feast of Saint Lucia on 13 December. Among the major sporting events, we we should mention the Palermo Marathon which since several years ago welcomes runners from all over Sicily and.
The feast of Santa Rosalia celebrates the liberation of the city of Palerno from the plague, thanks to the intervention of Santa Rosalia, the patron saint of the city. Even now the "festino" is a very popular and important event, held in July (10 to 15) and it attracts tens of thousands of tourists.
Since the late nineties the show has become a theatrical performance in all respects, with light games and spectacular acrobatic dances, which represent the last days of plague in Palermo.
The night between the 14th and 15th of July, thousands of people (mostly locals) accompany the long march of the Chariot of the Saint from the Cathedral to the Foro Italico, passing first through Bologni square, Quattro Canti and Porta Felice. A mix of folklore and religion that finds its culmination in the traditional fireworks: the area from “Foro Umberto I” to the harbor is floodlit by the colourful sparkles.
December 13 in Palermo is the day when the celebration of Saint Lucia starts, a religious and culinary tradition that has very ancient origins and sees in “arancina” the real queen of the party. The origin of the festival is linked to the miracle of Saint Lucia who liberated the city from famine, by sending a ship full of grain to the port.
During the days of the festivities the people eat only vegetables and pulses, the “arancine” and the “cuccìa”, a typical dish made from wheat and pulses.
For the occasion, almost all the bakeries are closed and Palermo is cheered up by the many fried food shops. This is why the arancina is the true queen of this day: in fact, in Palermo, only on December 13 the takeaways and bars of the city prepare different versions of the arancine that cannot be found in other periods of the year: arancine flavored with chocolate, or seasoned with broccoli, marinara, sausage, cuttlefish.
Over the weekend of November 16 in Palermo you can feel the thrill of the marathon run in the historical center, in a unique setting dominated by the dramatic view of Sicily’s November sky.
The circuit of the marathon winds through the wonderful landmarks of the historic center of Palermo, along the Via Maqueda, through the Quattro Canti square, and then up along Corso Vittorio Emanuele and other central streets.
The running competition is included in the official calendar of AIMS (Association of International Marathon and Road Races) and in the FIDAL calendar (Italian Federation of Athletics).
The marathon of Palermo is one of the biggest sporting events in the city and an opportunity for sport lovers to see the city in a unique atmosphere, free from cars and traffic.
For lovers of vintage and flea street markets, a must is a visit to the Vintage Market in Piazza Marina in Palermo, a place where you can find any kind of object and memorabilia.
The Vintage Market of Palermo takes place every Sunday morning in Piazza Marina, one of the most beautiful squares of the city.
The market area is surrounded by some of the most important buildings in the city's history: the seventeenth-century Palazzo Fatta, now used for exhibitions and events, the residence of the Galletti di San Cataldo family and Palazzo Chiaramonte.
At the center of the square stands Villa Garibaldi, built in the mid-nineteenth century, in which stands out a majestic Ficus, an centenary exotic tree which is also the largest in Italy.
