Ballora Market

For Sunday, May 13th, Mothers' Day, we had planned on taking the bus up to Monreale, overlooking the city, to see the cathedral there, it's 12th century mosaics, its beautifully sculpted cloisters, and its great views of the city and coast. We got an early start--the cloisters close at 1:30PM on Sundays--but grossly overestimated the capacity Palermo's bus system to get us perhaps 15k in under 3 hours. Other than delays and heavy traffic, the main problem is that the Monreale bus, #389, known as Europe's most pick-pocket infested, only runs every 75 minutes. This to see probably the #1 tourist attraction in the area. The very limited public service obviously benefits the private concession, picking up at the same stop, that will carry you to Monreale and back for a mere 20E each. Seeing that we would not get to Monreale before the cloisters closed, we decided to spend the day in town, walking around, taking in such sights as appeared. Targets of opportunity. From the Royal Palace, which we'd see another day, we walked in the direction of the Ballaro Market, Palermo's large daily market that encompasses many streets. I can't say it was the biggest or best market we have seen, although it was certainly the most unstructured. We did buy some Sicilian sun-dried tomatoes, the best, and some pistachio pesto.

Unstructured

Not singing

Available by the kilo or ton

Sorry, Charlie; the Mediterranean has some big tuna, and April and May are the
time of the big run past Sicily; this is by far the largest fish head I have ever
seen at a fish market; and I have seen a few markets

Escargot guy

Zucchini langa; like an entire meter langa; adjoining item
unknown

Very, very large beans

Beets?