Mercato della Vucciria

The story

The Vucciria fills Piazza Caracciolo and the streets around it, between Via Roma and the Cassaro. The name is traced either to the French “boucherie”, butcher’s shop, or to the Sicilian “vuccirìa”, confusion, din: both explanations suit it. At the centre stands the Garraffello fountain of 1591.

For centuries it was the city’s main market. Renato Guttuso painted it in 1974 on a huge canvas now kept at Palazzo Steri, and that is the image through which many still remember it.

As a daytime market it has shrunk a great deal in recent decades; in return it has become the heart of Palermo’s nights.

Why it is worth it

By day you find a few stalls and many peeling facades, which have a beauty of their own. It is in the evening that the square changes: grills lit, plastic tables, spleen sandwiches, stigghiola, bottled beer and music from every corner. It is not a place to look at, it is a place to stand in the middle of. Come with a friend and no hurry.