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| Palermo looks to new target market |
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The capital of Sicily has restored its historic centre, renovated its hotels and opened up its historic palazzos to events. The Fair is currently transforming some of its pavilions into what is meant to become the largest conference centre in south Italy. The city’s target now is to attract large international events.
 
Palermo is an extraordinary treasure chest of art, with Romanesque, Arab, Baroque and Art Nouveau influences. The city, long undervalued, has in the last ten years firmly established itself as a tourist destination, as evidenced by the more than 12 million visit days registered in 2006. This included a healthy 14.5% increase in international visitors, particularly from Germany, the UK, France, the US and Spain, while tourists from Eastern Europe have doubled their stays in just one year.
Palermo’s new image began to take hold during the 1990s with the renovation of the historic centre, one of Europe’s richest, with 700 historic buildings including mansions, churches, monasteries and seven theatres. It has been further fuelled by hundreds of live music cafes, restaurants, pizzerias and cabaret venues that provide a superb backdrop against which to enjoy the city’s charming atmosphere after dark. This vitality is matched by the packed calendar of events linked to design, contemporary art and music, which has enabled this city with a wholeheartedly Mediterranean culture to capture the interest of the international public.
At the same time, to host these events, a multitude of spaces is springing from the city’s enormous historic heritage, now destined to be used for new functions, including conferences and corporate events. These include the former train depot of Sant’Erasmo, an evocative example of 19th century railway architecture; the Expa Gallery, the first branch of Milan’s Triennale Museum in the former stables of Palazzo Cefalà in the historic centre of the Kalsa district; the 16th century Palazzo Tarallo, restored as a museum space and as the Opera dei Pupi puppet theatre; the former convent of Montevergini and the Palab, old stables in the heart of the Albergheria district, now both cultural centres; and in the same area, the Balate theatre, also a venue for exhibitions and conferences.
The Fiera del Mediterraneo trade fair centre has also been part of the city’s recent development. Renovation and conversion work of some pavilions into conference rooms and a 1,550-seat plenary hall is underway and is intended to give the complex the largest conference centre in south Italy. Palermo’s hotel accommodation, likewise caught up in the ferment sweeping the city, is being upgraded and is increasingly attracting the interest of the large international brands. The 5-star Grand Hotel Villa Igiea has already been affiliated to the Hilton group, and will be joined in the spring, following complete restoration work, by the Grand Hotel et Des Palmes, a prestigious hotel since the end of the 19th century, and the Excelsior Palace Hotel, which in September opened Exè, a restaurant, bar and fashionable haunt. |
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 Open palaces
There are more than 500 noble palazzos in Palermo. Some can be visited once a year on May weekends as part of Palermo opens its doors, when the descendants of the noble houses welcome the public to their homes. Using these palaces, their magnificent halls and age-old parks as a backdrop, DMC Pronto Events organises Sicilian-themed evenings, with the aid of professional actors and artists. These include those with an Arabic flavour (an intrinsic part of the island’s culture), held in beautiful gardens with palms and exotic plants, during which visitors are treated to buffets, belly dancing and fire-eating shows; historic dinners set in Baroque halls, accompanied by string quartets, dancers and actors in period costume; or the Godfather Dinner, during which guests are involved in a thriller that delves into the secret world of organised crime, with suspense, irony and the intense delights of local cuisine thrown in. |
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 Throughout the year, many owners of historic residences welcome groups in person for conferences, gala dinners with dances and concerts, and sometimes even overnight stays. Those offering this service in the city centre include Palazzo Conte Federico, one of Palermo’s oldest and most prestigious mansions; Palazzo Ajutamicristo, “the most beautiful and largest house in all Palermo” in the 18th century and today a national monument; Palazzo Alliata di Pietratagliata, dating back to 1571; Villa Chiaramonte Bordonaro ai Colli, where King Ferdinand of Bourbon lived in exile in the 18th century. Meanwhile, in the other Villa Chiaramonte Bordonaro, an art nouveau building dating back to the end of the 19th century surrounded by countryside, the owners organise Sicilian cookery courses for groups of 15/30 people. Finally, Villa Tasca can be rented even for private stays (including the eight service staff): this luxurious 18th century residence where Wagner completed Parsifal, has four magnificent rooms and spaces for events. |
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 A world around
As well as peaks of 2,000 metres, the region around Palermo includes some wonderful beaches, such as those in Sferracavallo, a village famous for its small fish restaurants, Cala Gallo, with its rocks moulded by the waves with emerald-green waters or Lido di Cefalù, with its long sandy shoreline. The beautiful town of Cefalù is in fact the starting point for the trip to the Madonie regional park (60 km from Palermo), which boasts the Le Madonie Golf Club, with an 18-hole course and a 5-star resort with 90 rooms, conference centre and beauty farm nearing completion. In the same area, on the hills of Castelbuono, lies the Relais Santa Anastasia, a 5-star hotel converted from an abbey where work on its facilities (beauty farm, riding school and tennis courts) and the addition of 24 new rooms is in its final stages. The local tourism office has put together a series of stay packages under the banner of “slow travel” for Palermo’s entire hinterland, which can be used as an interesting starting point for devising ad-hoc programmes. They revolve around the themes of gastronomy, culture, nature and crafts, and include wine and food tasting, hiking and biking. For information, go to www.aapit.pa.it and select Discover the flavours of Sicily (also in English). |
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Palermo in three days
DMC BlueStone Tourism Services offers the chance for visitors to get to know the many faces of Palermo and its region in three days. The programme starts in the heart of the city with a treasure hunt that, through clues and tests of ability, explores its “handicraft” soul, consisting of the many workshops mainly concentrated in the recently-restored Via Bara. Here, as well as simply visiting, participants can test their skills guided by real craftsmen, whether making the typical puppets, painting glass, carving wood or building toys in cartapesta, a type of paper mache. Afterwards, dinner is on the top floor of an 18th century building overlooking the sea in Il Laboratorio, a restaurant adorned with handmade and modern antique furnishings, where the seats bear the autographs of the VIPs who have eaten there, including Hanna Schygulla and Banana Yoshimoto.
Palermo’s alleys play a key role on the second day: accompanied by a gastronome, participants visit the Capo market, the city’s oldest, to shop for evening dinner. They are then taken on a historic train right into the estate of one of Italy’s best known wineries, Tasca d’Almerita, 90 km from Palermo. The Sicilian cookery courses lasting one or two days are run by owner Anna Tasca Lanza in an entertaining, educated and professional manner.
The third day is dedicated to the sea, with a trip of just over an hour on a hydrofoil to the shore of Ustica, the island in the Tyrrhenain Sea with unique volcanic depths rich in flora, fauna and archaeological finds. This is a good spot for diving or a trip on the Acquario motorboat with its glass-bottomed keel. Guests enjoy a fish-based dinner at Mamma Lia, a seafood restaurant in a period house, and an overnight stay at the 4-star Grotta Azzurra, whose 51 rooms all have a spectacular view of the blue Ustica sea.
May 2008
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