June

“In case you are without a dream, hurry up and get one because living without one is like living in black and white” ~ Renato Zero

A big red heart doles out philosophy in Palermo bylanes, festooned with lights and signs, balconies spilling over with greenery, a city that speaks in poetry. The bustle around it is unmistakably urban - voices overlapping, tourists posing for pictures and haggling with souvenir shops, cafés humming with life. Palermo felt like an orchestrated chaos, an energy that never quite sits still.

What made the city even more striking is how completely opposite this is from the sleepy, sun-drenched villages we had been about. A contrast felt especially vivid after an afternoon spent stretched out on a yacht, rocked by gentle waves, sunlight glittering over the Tyrrhenian Sea, the world reduced to sea breeze and quiet.

Then evening pulled us back into Palermo’s embrace. Wandering through the old city, past baroque facades and glowing trattorias, everything felt alive again. The voices, the music, the colours, the scent of food drifting from open windows all folded together into a kind of neon heartbeat.

A day split between stillness and movement, between hushed horizons and crowded streets, somehow, that duality is exactly what made Palermo unforgettable.