Savoring Palermo: In The Markets and Beyond

Francesca was an amazing guide. We were five friends who have done many food tours and this one stood out as the best. We were taken to really good, non touristy, food stops and had delicious tastings including Iris (a doughnut filled with ricotta and chocolate), arancina (the best I have ever tasted) and many others. Francesca explained how the history of Palermo and the food were closely linked. We also visited a puppeteer’s workshop which was an added bonus. Would highly recommend.

This tour made me fall in love with Palermo. Erica showed us wonderful places, not only providing new tastes, but also historical and cultural context. From typical street food to exquisite pasticceria, it was FUN and thoughtfully paced and structured. (It was my first Culinary Backstreets tour.)

Our guide Francesca was amazing, highly recommended! The tour was fun, an easy walk, well structured and we had the chance to engage with vendors and enjoy their porduce and knowledge. The recommendations were fantastic. We revisted several of the vendors / locations multiple times during the remainder of our visit to Palermo.

Fantastic tour with Enriqua! She was punctual and easy to find and shared her lived experience as a native of Palermo - we loved the vendors and tastes she curated for us. It was a lot of food and a moderate amount of walking. We saw some of Palermo's landmarks and visited 2 markets. We really loved having her take us through the markets which would otherwise have been somewhat overwhelming to navigate, but some of our favorite bites (red prawns, arancini, spleen sandwich) were thoughtfully picked by our guide and she gave us a history of the food and vendors as well. This was our 3rd Culinary Backstreets tour and won't be our last.

This guys at Cullinnary Backstreets, are really incredible. They always deliver. My wife plans our holidays on places where they have a tour... Probably means I'll be going next year to Seoul :) Really amazing market food and cultural experience. The guide was super knowledgable, we learned about all the different cultures mixing in Palermo. Great great food, amazing stories.

A wonderful morning in the markets of Palermo... we saw a lot of the city we would not have seen on our own... lots of tastings, fantastic food and a lot of history of the city. And a couple of surprise stops !

AMAZING! I cannot recommend this company highly enough - we rarely join group tours and I wanted to be assured that this would be interesting vs. walking around with someone saying 'this is an arancini' and boy, did I get my wish. Enrica was perfection - utterly knowledgable and sincere in her love of Palermo - we walked (miles) and each stop and the talking in between stops was a discussion of history and culture and how the food reflects that. We even made a stop that was at a silver/goldsmith so she could further tell the story of the real tradespeople that populated the neighborhood. Our food went through many styles - from 1 street vendor to fancy waterfront to perfect pistachios from a life-long nut-vendor to the purveyor of a sweetener from a grove of trees only found in sicily. Ended with the world's best ricotta cheesecake and we were beyond happy. Culinary Backstreets personally answered each of my emails in a timely fashion and I would - and will - use them again for any new destinations.

+9

Palermo is famous for food, but with this tour we had the best if it, along with the stories behind. The hidden gems, skipping the touristic hooks, we enjoyed a great tour with Enrica. Our lovely guide was very resourceful and also gifted us with a surprise that is very rare to experience. I cannot recommend more, thank you Enrica ❤️

+1

Wow. Alessandra took us on an incredible whirlwind tour of Palermo. We ate a huge variety of delicious food, a lot of which we would never have found ourselves. She taught us a lot about the city and Sicily as well. She was tireless and full of energy and charming and generous. We loved every minute and could not recommend this tour more.

Our guide Paola was very knowledgeable, nice, entertaining and knew every inch of the tour. We sampled great food, my only advice is listen to her and pace yourself!