Hi Reader,

Travel + Leisure asked a handful of experts to name the best food destination on earth. Every one of us said Italy. But, when they got to me, I didn’t say Rome or Bologna. I said Palermo. Nothing against the rest of Italy but this city always seems to fly under-the-radar.

Why I Said Palermo

Sicily reminds me as much of Beirut as it does of Naples. It belongs to the Mediterranean more than to any one country, and a city like Palermo, with its millennia of history and layers of food and architecture, proves that on every block. That’s the case I made when Travel + Leisure came asking.

Palermo isn’t a city that's been polished for tourists. You eat well because the food culture is ancient, layered, and deeply alive. Walk into Ballarò, the city’s oldest street market, and you see it on every corner: vendors frying panelle (chickpea fritters) to order, stuffing arancini (fried rice balls) by the dozen, grilling stigghiola (skewered, charcoal-grilled offal) right there on the curb, a tradition that traces back to the island’s Arab period. None of it is staged... it’s just lunch!

Where I’d Actually Send You to Eat

On our last trip, my husband and I befriended a local food expert, and next thing we knew we were tucked in a wine bar making new friends, eating panelle straight from another friend’s stall while the rain came down outside. That’s Palermo. It has the small-town intimacy of San Francisco, the kind of place where you can know a neighborhood by name in a few days.

So here’s where I’d send you. Start at Ferramenta, a natural wine bar in a converted hardware store, piazza-side, all Sicilian growers and well-made cocktails. For dinner, Buatta Cucina Popolana for pasta alle sarde (sardines, wild fennel, pine nuts) and fish involtini.

If you want the kind of night that builds, do aperitivo at Bocum and then dinner right across the street at Gagini. If Italy has been tugging at you this year and Sicily is the part that won’t let go, we can build a leg around it.

How to Fold Sicily Into a Bigger Italy Trip

Start in Palermo. It sets the tone for everything that comes after. The island is big, but you can cross it by car in three or four hours, so I like three days in Palermo and then a move to a coastal town or wine country. The best Sicily trips run seven to ten nights, long enough to just live in it for a while.

That’s the thing about Sicily. It moves at its own pace and has its own distinct culture from the mainland. You arrive thinking you’re adding a leg to an Italy trip, and somewhere around day four you exhale and realize you’re somewhere else entirely.

P.S. If Sicily is on your mind for this year or next, this is the moment to start. Tell us what you’re dreaming up and we’ll shape an Italy trip around it.