Palermo Alone cover

Italy · Available now

Palermo
Alone

A solo travel guide for women 50 and over
By Jennifer Brandt

Start with an arancina eaten standing at a market counter, grease on your fingers, in a crowd doing the same. Afterward, find the Arab-Norman mosaics and the medieval quarters strung with laundry.

$6.99 ebook

Buy the ebook, $6.99Read a sample

Ebook · Updated Q4 2026

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Where you might stay

  • Mid-rangePalazzo Natoli Boutique Hotelquieter side street near Quattro Canti
  • A treatHotel Porta Felice & Spaquiet base with wellness area and terrace

Two places to eat or drink alone

  • I Segreti del ChiostroCarry sweets into the cloister and eat among orange trees.
  • Bar TouringPastry counter near the Botanical Garden.

SAMPLE

The Physical Heart

Palermo sits in the Conca d’Oro, the Golden Shell: a fertile, mountain-ringed plain once dense with citrus groves. Its natural harbor, La Cala, is why Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans each wanted the city. The port now holds fishing boats rather than power, but the city still turns on it, and from a hotel in Kalsa the water is ten minutes’ walk.

Monte Pellegrino looms over the northern edge of the city, a massive limestone outcropping that holds a sanctuary at its peak. From most places in Palermo you can see it.

The center is small enough to cross on foot, from the port up to the Palazzo dei Normanni, through streets where the traffic is scooters and shopping bags and the laundry is strung overhead.

A free excerpt from Palermo Alone.

PRACTICAL SAMPLE

The Street Food Strategy: Eating Alone

Palermo is often called the street-food capital of Europe. Sicilians of all classes have long eaten standing: workers with no time to sit down, and shoppers fed by the markets they shop in.

The Pleasures of the Table sets out what to order and what each dish costs. The mechanics are simple.

At the counter, point at what you want or say its name, pay, and eat standing, often with a small napkin and greasy fingers. The whole thing takes five or ten minutes, beside other people doing the same.

Ballarò, the Vucciria and Capo are the three main markets in the historic center. They serve Palermitani buying food for home, so they keep shoppers’ hours rather than visitors’, and anyone may walk in.

A free excerpt from Palermo Alone.

Inside this book

  • Palermo Awaits
  • A City Shaped by History
  • Planning Your Escape
  • The Solo Woman’s Palermo
  • Where to Stay
  • Neighborhood by Neighborhood
View the chapter contents
  • Palermo Awaits
  • A City Shaped by History
  • Planning Your Escape
  • The Solo Woman’s Palermo
  • Where to Stay
  • Neighborhood by Neighborhood
  • Days in Palermo
  • Art, Culture & Creativity
  • The Pleasures of the Table
  • Evening & After Dark
  • Retail Therapy
  • Beyond the City, Day Trips
  • Conversation Notes
  • Practical Matters

BUY THE GUIDE

Palermo Alone

Start with an arancina eaten standing at a market counter, grease on your fingers, in a crowd doing the same. Afterward, find the Arab-Norman mosaics and the medieval quarters strung with laundry.

$6.99 ebook

Buy the ebook, $6.99

Ebook · Updated Q4 2026

Instant download · Secure checkout by Payhip

THE GUIDE + YOUR OWN PLANS

Ready to settle your plans?

Two of its three day plans: “Markets and Mosaics” and “The Slow Day”.

See inside the Palermo kit →
A page from the free sample of the Palermo kitRead the free 3-page sample (PDF) →
Do I need the kit as well?

No. The guide stands on its own. The kit is a separate, optional pack of decisions, day plans and a booking list. Read the free 3-page sample to see whether it suits the way you plan.

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