Palermo is the beating heart of Sicily, a heart that holds within all the mesmerizing beauty and stark oppositions typical of this land: it is rich in art and beautiful to the point of pain, yet rough around the edges and uncompromising. Palermo, just like Sicily all, shows you unafraid the opulence of its past, side by side with the more precarious nature of its present. Palermo is beautiful, even where it needs some TLC, because it has always been a city, just like the whole region of Sicily, with a multifaceted soul: Greek and Roman, Arab and Norman, Spanish and Italian, each leaving behind a mark which contributed to create that unique thing Sicilian identity is.
Finally, Palermo will get some official recognition for all its charm: the city has been chosen as Italy’s Capital of Culture for the year 2018. The announcement was given at the end of the month of January by the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Art, Dario Franceschini, who declared to Italian daily “La Repubblica” that “the competition becomes better and better each year and being one of the ten finalists is already a huge achievement. Palermo has always been – and still is – a capital and this title will only valorize the city as much as it truly deserves.”
