If you plan to visit Sicily in the summer, make sure Palermo is on your itinerary on July 14. Every year on the night between July 14 and 15 Palermo residents celebrate Saint Rosalia, the patron saint of the city, with a huge parade commemorating the miracle that saved Palermo from the terrible plague of 1624. Like all religious festivals, the sacred and secular intermingle, and over time the Festino (the name of this festival) has expanded with meanings, choreography and sets that maintain a strong traditional and religious symbolism.
The Festino
Don’t miss this event if you want an authentic Palermitano experience. The Festino attracts curious crowds from all over Sicily and captivates tourists who find themselves caught up in the festivities. The theme chosen for the 395th edition was concern: “Concern is human,” said Mayor Leoluca Orlando, “just as fear is human. But concern can be the driver of change when it’s linked to respect for people, respect for rights, and listening to and understanding others. The Festino is an important part of Palermo’s cultural transformation and Saint Rosalia remains a steady guide for our city with her concern.” For 2019, the traditional commemorative float was made by the inmates at the Ucciardone prison.
Photo by Benedetto Tarantino
Festino foods
The Festino has a whole array of culinary traditions. Among them: watermelon; babbaluci, small snails cleaned in water and cooked in a rich parsley-garlic soffritto, then eaten by sucking them right out of the shell or picking them out with a toothpick; scaccio, nut-filled paper cones including toasted chickpeas and pumpkin seeds. And then, of course, there are desserts. In Romagnolo, a neighborhood famous in the 1930s for the former Petrucci and Virzì baths, you can still enjoy the legendary pezzi duri, or “hard pieces,” slices of ice cream that resisted the summer heat for longer.
Bomba gelato
Before ice cream cones and take-out ice cream became customary, in Palermo people ate the famous pezzi duri in the Neapolitan style. They were durable during transport and above all emblematic of a noble elite. There were several types (mattonella, charlotte, granate, stracchini alla napoletana), but the most popular was surely the bomba gelato. The term bomba refers to the fact that the old gelato makers, who were too poor to buy new metal molds, would collect the shells of bombs, which they then filled with ice cream. In the middle, they stuffed them with Italian meringue bursting with candied fruit and chocolate chips (the meringue was later replaced by cream).
Photo by Benedetto Tarantino
In the 1970s and ’80s, they became a staple in Palermo’s gelato shops.
Pasticceria Da Josè
Pasticceria Da Josè, owned by the D’Amico family, still keeps alive the tradition of the pezzi duri, available in its historical versions: bomba and giardinetto. On July 14, 1960, Giuseppe D’Amico, a young pastry chef and gelato maker, opened the Pasticceria Gelateria Da Josè in the renowned seaside neighborhood of Romagnolo in Palermo. Back then, the summer was jam-packed with people in the summer. With dedication, tenacity and passion, he created miniature masterpieces that fully embraced tradition. In his workshop, he created the bomba gelato in different flavors: coffee, parfait, riso del paradiso (“paradise rice”), torrone, giardinetto (strawberry, lemon and pistachio), jasmine. The part in the middle, known as the “little treasure,” is rich in candied fruit, chocolate and almonds. “Art is not hidden behind a jealously guarded recipe,” explains the D’Amico family. “Art is the constant search for the best ingredients, choosing them in their places of origin and working to preserve every individual characteristic. Art is talent’s brazen ability to break the mold and present different works and even new flavors that will be part of our most cherished memories.”