Am I an official travel guide? A public employee? The mayor? Nope. I’m none of these.
What I am is a native Palermo resident who loves this city like Romeo loved his Juliet. I talk obsessively about her, I know every part of her, every secret. I can vehemently list all of the pros of the city, but I also know entirely of its flaws.
I am not just an eternal lover of the city, but an extensive traveler in my own accord.
I have been all over the world in the last 10 years in both the business and leisure settings. The more that I travel, the more I realize the love I have for Palermo grows stronger because I see it from new perspectives. I would even say with a stranger’s eyes at times.
My love and passion, as well as my extensive traveling, led me to create one of the most heavily traveled and appreciated websites dedicated to Palermo. I am very proud of this effort when I consider how it all started.
Early on, I had no idea what would happen.
When I created wearepalermo.com, it was really just to help foreign AirBnB guests (and their visitors coming to Palermo) to have an authentic Sicilian experience here in the city. Most information that existed at that time was outdated, incomplete, and untruthful.
I got upset that these guests would only ever see the tourist draw of the city and pay twice as much for this experience. They would be missing out on all the reasons that I love Palermo. They had lists of restaurants and bars they intended to try that I would not even let my dog eat the scraps from. Something had to be done.
Even their list of attractions missed out on the good draws of the city.
As a traveler, I empathize with those visiting Palermo. Burning time and money on tourist traps sucks. You feel duped, and that is not a feeling that you want at any point during your vacation.
So I put all that information into a credible guide.
Ideally, the intention was to provide the kind of information that it was like I was literally taking you by the hand and showing you the city. This would provide an authentic experience without all the snags and catches.
You can see Palermo for what it was meant to be.