Feeling lost? Jump back to my old blog: The Pursuit of Happiness to catch up.

Sunday we flew from London to Palermo in fashion with all of us sitting together in an exit row seat – it was perfect and Paul got a bit of relief from Ryanair’s cramped seats.  We all bussed to Paul’s apartment and crashed with the sound machine on high while all four of us snuggled in the main bedroom.

On Monday, we slept in an embarrassingly long time and Mom, Dad, and I went for a walk down to Teatro Massimo and got a snack at a restaurant off the square.  Mom and I had a excellent macchiato while Curty got a sandwich and a local drink.  It was a nice afternoon as we waited patiently for Paul to finish work.

After Paul returned from a late day of work we wanted to hit the town for dinner.  We discovered a small restaurant close to our place on Trip Advisor and found a dark, closed restaurant instead of the affordable dinner everyone raved about.  The area we were walking in was slightly questionable and dark, but we stumbled upon a bar/booze shack and the men went in for a drink.  Next to this quiet shack we discovered a family using open charcoal to grill fish, meat and what looked to be sandwiches.  We didn’t see any other viable food options so thought we would try it.  Two manzo (beef) sandwiches ordered, then three, then four. They were so delicious it was hard to deny.  Olive oil roasted buns on an open charcoal stove is simply heaven.  I walked over to another portion of the open food area and ordered pasta from a man off the street.  After a lot of misunderstood communication I sat down at a table and hoped that he would bring out pasta for somewhere under 20 Euros.  Sure enough, he lit his cigar, cranked the music in the street kitchen and started dicing all of the perfect ingredients for spicy pasta.

What arrived at our table was a massive platter of some of the best pasta I have ever tasted.  Let’s just say we may have been the only ones out for dinner in this area on a Monday night, but we struck gold.  We were in awe of the flavors and Deb couldn’t stop talking about her sandwich from heaven.

The next day we went strolling and shopping around the main streets of Palermo.  Mom found herself a purse and we also sat down to sip a café latte.  Paul got home from work earlier than expected and we hung out until it was dinnertime across town.  We had a Groupon for all you can eat pizza across town.  It was a bit of a hike, but well worth it.  Our waiter was extremely nice and patient with us.  He didn’t understand a lick of English.  We just nodded while he said “tutto”, which we later found out meant “everything’.  Sure we’ll have a pizza with everything.  Paul quickly scurried up to the counter to say “no anchovies” in Italian.  Thanks Paul.

The pizzas arrived and were phenomenal.  The crust was thin and the pizzas were dripping with cheese and toppings.  We were so full and they brought out another pizza with cheese and rocket – my absolute favorite.  I some how managed to put away another two pieces after declaring myself full 15 minutes prior.  The walk home was polished off with a stop at Bar Aluha for gelato.  The same waiter served us (the crazy Americans that can’t speak Italian, but want pizza) earlier that afternoon and remembered our antics.  My dad shook his hand on the way out and either made him laugh more at us or made his day!  Either way, it was a win. The gelato was awesome and served as the perfect icing on two fine days spent in Palermo.

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