Rome/Palermo (gro) Floods and landslides in Piedmont and Lombardy, high water in Venice – Italy is experiencing an extremely rainy summer. All of Italy? No, the sun is shining in the deep south, especially in Sicily, which is currently living up to its nickname of “sunny island. No wonder that in fashionable Mondello, the seaside suburb of Palermo, the Art Nouveau façade of the over 100 year-old spa house on stilts (our picture) and the fine “Charleston” inside it shines sunnily in the brightest shades.
1.5 kilometers of the finest sandy beach.
Mondello is the “Tivoli” of the island’s capital, Palermo. The water in the wide bay between Monte Pelegrino and Capo Gallo shimmers turquoise green in front of a fine sandy beach, which stretches like a small Copacabana as a flat semicircle for 1.5 kilometers. In the high season, most of this splendid beach is partly regulated and firmly in the hands of (paying!) permanent guests. However, there is the legal possibility for everyone to use the beach for a refreshing swim. In addition, for reasonable entrance fees, day guests have access to several well-equipped sections of beach that leave hardly anything to be desired.
Also a paradise for gourmets.
Mondello is not only an ideal place for those who want to combine urban flair with scenic beauty, swimming pleasure, sunbathing and sports. Mondello is also a paradise for gourmets. If you take the trouble to ask around, you will find out where the seafood tastes particularly good. If you don’t have time for that, you should ask for the “Gambero Rosso”, the “Charleston”, possibly also for the “Gabbiano” and in any case for “Blue Note”. After the latter especially early. Because there you often have to reserve to get seats.
Once upon a time there was a fishing village.
Mondello was once a tranquil fishing village. That changed shortly after the beginning of the 20th century, when a group of French, Belgian and Palermitan investors got together in 1904 to turn the tranquil little village into a sophisticated seaside resort. Of the 400 villas planned, only a little over 100 were built before the First World War put a stop to the ambitious expansion plans. Thus Mondello has been spared to some extent from the international jestset to this day, and the parliamentarians have all the more pleasure in their own garden city with its magnificent “Kurhaus” including the “Charleston” on stilts in the sea. Photo: commons/wikipedia