Mangia Monday at an Infamous Focacceria in Palermo, Sicily!

I love my fellow writers who guest here.  We lead such interesting lives and they have such colorful ways of sharing them with the rest of us.  Cherrye, over at My Bella Vita, found a great focacceria in Palermo that’s oh so Sicilian in more ways than just food.

Taking a bite out of crime in Palermo, Sicily / photo: atrogu

Antica Focacceria San Francesco (Via Alessandro Paternostro, 58) came highly recommended before my long weekend trip to Palermo, Italy. Yes, I’ve been known to stalk out a well-known restaurant when I’m on vacation, but this time I was traveling quasi-solo, with my fellow expat-in-Calabria and real-life friend, Michelle of Bleeding Espresso, and I thought we’d be too busy to look up old Antica Focacceria.

Luckily for us, she was right around the corner from our bed and breakfast-so close, in fact, that the B&B served homemade cornetti from their bakery each morning for breakfast.

After devouring the morning pastries, we set out to visit the old town and stumbled into a piazza and into the Chiesa di San Francesco di Assisi … and a line of carabinieri.

We looked across the alley and immediately recognized the guarded building as Antica Focacceria San Francesco.

“I wonder if someone famous is eating there?”

“Perhaps a politician or an actor?”

“Or maybe the carabinieri just like the food?”

We observed the well-dressed officers for a while, noticed how the wait staff delivered food and watched as they ate-standing at waist-high tables-their eyes fixed on the restaurant.

After a few minutes we lost interest in the peace-keepers, noted the restaurant’s evening hours and set out for the rest of our day.

That night, we returned and what did we see? A whole new group of police officers.

We were greeted by a friendly Palermitano and escorted to a table on the second floor.  We ordered our typical Sicilian fare-wine, an antipasto dish of arancini, milza  (or vastedda,

You say milza. I say vastedda. It's all a spleen to me!

depending on which side of the street you’re from) and crochettes, each ordered a plate of pasta alla norma and split a cannolo-type desert, oozing with fresh ricotta and drizzled chocolate.

It was good, although shhh-the pasta was a tad too al dente, but the antipasto, dessert and atmosphere were outstanding.  And the story behind all of those officers? Well, you can read up on that here … it’ll probably make you want to go there even more.

Cherrye Moore is an American freelance writer and Calabria tour consultant living in southern Italy. She writes about travel for MNUI Travel Insurance and about living and traveling in Calabria on her site, My Bella Vita.