Every stop, every vendor, and every tasting on a recent street food and market tour through Palermo’s old city center was deeply connected to the personal background and family memories of our articulate and thoughtful guide, Sicilian-born Innocenzo Cancemi.
As we walked, Innocenzo wove in informative stops with colorful stories that reflected the island’s cultural landscapes, ancient markets, sacred sites, and culinary traditions. He created an immersive narrative where flavors, history, and personal tales intertwine.
Sicily, he said, “is a crossroads of civilizations where sunlight, history, and myth breathe through the stones.”
Our Sicily Food Tour Begins
Our small group of travelers began our mid-morning Eating Europe adventure at Antica Friggitoria dal 1947, a family-run business near Palermo’s central station that opened soon after WWII. “It’s not just a historic spot,” Innocenzo recounted. “As a child, during my summer holidays, I used to go there with my paternal grandfather to deliver lemons he cultivated and sold. It was always a small celebration to eat pane e panelle together — a very ancient food that dates back to the Arab-Norman period,” nearly a millennium ago.
The now-famous Sicilian street food – chickpea flour fritters (panelle) stuffed inside soft sesame seed rolls (pane) – was served at official banquets. It “was known as ‘diplomatic food,’ because it was suitable for everyone, regardless of religious or dietary restrictions,” he said, respecting all faiths and traditions – from Kosher and Halal to Christian Orthodox.
“Food simply brought people together,” Innocenzo said. “I always like people to share this part of history, to see who the real Sicilians were, living peacefully and sharing food.”
Along with the panelle, we enjoyed crocchè (potato croquettes) and Spuma, a Sicilian soda made with brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. It became popular as a less expensive alternative to Coca-Cola. Innocenzo’s grandfather used to make a homemade variety.
Sicilian Pizza Time
As we strolled through the historic, open-air Ballarò market, Innocenzo introduced us to Forno Storico Pietro Marino, a third-generation bakery. We sampled two types of sfincione (it translates as “spongy”), a thick, rectangular focaccia-like Sicilian pizza.
“Pizza wasn’t fancy food; it was made with the leftovers of bread,” he said. Sfincione bianco, an old-style pizza, which he calls pre-Columbian white pizza, is made with onions and ricotta, but no tomatoes. Arab culture introduced it; red pizza came along after tomatoes were brought to the island. “Before the discovery of the Americas, Italians didn’t have a clue what a tomato was. Now, it’s the symbol of Italian food.”
Innocenzo shared a family tip for making naturally sweet tomato sauce using onions. “My great-grandmother always steamed them with little water so that the onions evaporate all the alcohol and release lots of sugar, before adding them and bay leaf to the sauce. She was an excellent cook. She could cook everything and anything in a really special way,” he said. “That’s the reason why I became very keen on food – this longing to find the real flavors that I had at home.”
Innocenzo’s maternal grandfather, a prominent baker who served the local convents and military barracks, closed his shop decades ago. But many of his former workers learned the profession from him. They later opened their own bakeries with his help, including the one we had visited. When Innocenzo visits those bakeries today, owners often tell him: “We owe your grandfather a lot.”
Olives, and Cheese, and Meat…
For me, a high point was nibbling on the island’s extraordinary olives at Alberto Napoli, a traditional delicatessen run by family friends. (It’s only scheduled when bona fide olive-lovers state their need.)
We also sampled caciocavallo, a local sheep-and- cow’s-milk cheese, whose name means “cheese on horseback,” as it is dried and aged hanging in pairs with air circulating, like a rider straddling a horse.
Our next stop was Macelleria Bilello, a neighborhood butcher, where the dedicated carnivores among us tried savory grilled meats, like Sicilian sausage (pork and fennel) and mangia e bevi (spring onion wrapped with a slice of pork belly). For the less daring, the butcher also grilled chicken, lamb, and for vegetarians, mixed veggies.
Innocenzo’s Arancini
Then on to Babbalù, a popular street-food spot for some arancini, the quintessential Sicilian staple – stuffed rice balls with ragù, a mix of onion, celery, carrot and a squeeze of tomato purée.
“Most of the other touristy places don’t use saffron anymore, which is the secret ingredient to make Palermo arancini,” Innocenzo said. “For me, it is a memory because arancini is the official food for my birthday, the 13th of December. We all eat it for the Feast of Saint Lucy.”
Several years ago, when Eating Europe’s operations manager asked him to help design the tour, he recommended a vendor whose arancini, he said, have “the same flavor as my mum’s, with lots of saffron and good minced meat and things,” like peas.
Walking Through Sicilian History
As we wandered through the streets of Albergheria, the city’s central historic district, Innocenzo told stories that reflected the area’s living history: how nearby construction work unearthed remnants of an ancient Roman road. And how some street-level shops doing robust business still had upper stories that had remained in disrepair since WWII, when Palermo was heavily attacked. A glance upwards revealed the bombed-out remains.
And he pointed out a shop that decades ago was one of the first to stand up to the Mafia. “They posted signs that said ‘addiopizzo,’” he explained, meaning that the business owner refuses to pay extortion money.
“He has a remarkably deep sense of history,” my husband and travel companion recounted. “To me, that’s what made him so good. He clearly sees through the historical lens. Everything is presented through layers of history.”
© Innocenzo Cancemi
A Personal History Revealed
In his early 20s, Innocenzo moved to London to study philosophy, psychology, theology, and the history of religions. He credits those disciplines with helping him decode the world and eventually, himself. He returned to Sicily in 2007 after eight years in London and another seven in Rome.
In London, Innocenzo’s personal exploration revealed “a hidden Jewish past embodied by a mysterious great-grandmother.” When he heard the Shema recited, he recalled, it ignited “a transformative journey back into my ancestral roots.”
As a child, his great-grandma taught him the central Jewish prayer. “Every Friday she used to light candles and say ‘silence, silence! Now we chant a riddle, learn it. Never forget, and keep it to yourself,’” he said.
It was an important family tradition. Doing so in secret was critical, as it was for generations of Jews who converted to Christianity but practiced their faith in private at certain times in history, including during the recent Nazi era in his great-grandma’s time. “She knew her life was at stake,” he said.
Reconciling the Past
But reconciliation with the past is evident in the city. Today, an old church where his great-grandmother went to pray, “Our Lady of the Shabbat,” was once a mikvah, the ritual bath for Jewish women. It is being restored and will be given back to the small Jewish community in Palermo. Recent plaques in the former medieval Jewish quarter, written in Italian, Hebrew, and Arabic, commemorate the area’s mixed heritage.
A Dark Yet Sweet Past
Our tour continued at Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, an elegant old church and monastery-turned bakery near Piazza Pretoria. We enjoyed cannoli in the lovely, citrus-tree-lined courtyard. But their sweetness and the surrounding beauty belied a dark, tragic past.
“Those convents were prisons,” Innocenzo said, explaining a widespread practice from the 16th century through the late 18th century. “There was this horrible tradition. In noble families who had lots of siblings, only the firstborn boy and the firstborn girl were able to marry.” The intention was to keep wealth in the family. The other children, he said, “were all locked against their will.”
The last Dominican nuns moved out in 2014, and the monastery is now a museum of sacred art. Its famous bakery, I Segreti del Chiostro (The Secrets of the Cloister), still produces traditional Sicilian desserts. The bakery, which published a cookbook by the same name, uses original recipes passed down by the nuns of the 21 cloistered monasteries of Palermo, according to centuries-old pastry-making traditions.
A second book, “Le impudiche paste delle vergini” (The Indecent Sweets of the Virgins), Innocenzo said, reflects the nuns’ “little secret diaries where they wrote down their sufferings being there. They gave funny names to the sweets, like the cassata, called ‘the tits of the virgins,’ because, of course, they were terribly bitter.”
The tour ended at Caffè Stagnitta at the century-old family-run roastery Stagnitta
to sip an espresso. “The tradition was not to buy coffee in supermarkets. You went to roasteries, where they gave you freshly roasted beans,” said Innocenzo. His family would stop there after grocery shopping and before heading home to have lunch with his grandfather. “He had been working since very early in the morning at the bakery,” he added.
The Story on Sicily by Food
Today, Innocenzo regularly conducts tours for Eating Europe in Palermo. He also works as an independent guide throughout Sicily, customizing private tours based on clients’ interests.
“I feel this job is a mission, to help people connect, to look at the world with different eyes.” Forgiveness and reconciling with history, he said, are essential.
Innocenzo’s own family roots reflect the island’s diverse history. “On my father’s side, they had a Muslim-origin surname. My great-grandmother was a Jew. The parents were Catholics,” he said. “You know what? I became a Buddhist.”
“Learning about the history behind food leads to respecting each other,” he said. “For centuries we managed to live peacefully together, to share our places, even cemeteries. That’s why I’m very passionate, because I want people to awaken their conscience and say, ‘let’s stop fighting each other. Let’s find a way to peace.’ This is the message that I always want to convey. We can create a better world.”
If You Go
Innocenzo can be reached via phone or WhatsApp: +39 328 864 5281. His website, www.professorican.com, was under construction at the time of publication in fall 2026.
Get information on visiting Sicily at Visit Sicily, the official website for tourism in the island.
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