Rob and I have travelled internationally on our own AND on guided tours. We really wanted to get an in depth tour of the island of Sicily and decided to take our first Rick Steves tour. As is our custom, we arrived a few days early to ward off any unforeseen airport problems and recover from any jet lag. Our tour starts tomorrow so we head off to explore on our own.
Palermo & Anti Mafia Tour
The metro area of Palermo has a population of 1.2 million with half living in the city.
We noticed different traffic customs. There are a lot of motorcycles and even horse-drawn carriages. The streets are very busy, but there don’t seem to be many traffic lights. There are a lot of “zebra” crosswalks. One starts across and the cars and buses stop, and the bicycles and motorcycles go around.
We stayed at the Hotel Ambasciatori on Via Roma. This is where our Rick Steves group will congregate meet for orientation.
Our breakfast was on the rooftop of our hotel. What a view! I am going to try to recreate that feeling at home either by eating outside or putting pictures of this on my big screen TV. It was peaceful and inspiring.
What time is it? City Tour Time
In 2004, the resistance organization called Anti-Mafia started. They educated us about their mission.
There is a mural wall of people who fought the Mafia. Most of them died as a result of a Mafia killing. Others helped to uncover their deeds by photography, etc.
Photographer Letizia Battaglia exposed the activities of the Mafia. I found a 2019 documentary entitled Shooting the Mafia.
Many people who went up against the Mafia knew that they were in constant danger. They would take different roads in their daily lives. However, there is only one road to the airport.
Judge Giovanni Falcone was assassinated on May 23, 1982. The Mafia placed under the road to the airport 500 kilos of dynamite from bombs of WWII extracted from the sea of Palermo. For Sicily the explosion was like America’s 9/11. People either heard the bomb or knew where they were when they heard about the bomb. The bomb blast even registered on an earthquake monitor.
The judge’s wife and three policemen were also killed.
On July 19 of the same year, Judge Paolo Borsellino was killed by a car bomb. He was a childhood friend and fellow judge with Falcone. The airport outside Palermo is named Falcone-Borsellino Airport.
Children would ask “Who was killed today?” Every day there is much shooting.
The Anti-Mafia organization’s motto, “A whole people who pays protection money is a people without dignity,” encapsulates their core message. They believe that paying the Mafia diminishes the dignity of the entire community.
Pizzo is the term for money that the Mafia collects from businesses. The owner decides whether they will pay the pizzo.
When you buy coffee from a cafe that pays pizzo to the Mafia, in essence you are supporting the Mafia.
It would take many businesses to come together and refuse to pay the pizzo. People were frightened. If you go to a store, you might witness some type of violence. This made people afraid, and they would not want to go alone.
However, there is strength in numbers. The businesses gathered 3,000 customer signatures that said that they would support stores that stopped paying the pizzo.
Initially, there were 100 businesses on the list. Today there are 1, 063 businesses and one can find them on their website. https://addiopizzo.org/
Also, the businesses display a sticker to inform customers. In the beginning 80% of the businesses paid the pizzo. Today it is estimated that about 40% pay the pizzo.
A word of warning: Stickers have been reproduced. Confirm with the website.
The mafia has moved to other countries.
The Mission of Anti-Mafia
- Beat the economy of the Mafia by buying at establishments who don’t pay to them. Their motto: “I pay those who don’t pay.”
- Educate the young school children about Mafia crime to bring about future change.
- Provide legal and other assistance to those who have been victimized by the Mafia. When land, money, etc. is confiscated, they use it for something good.
Questions
Is the pizzo collected as a fixed price or a percentage of the business? Fixed. Our guide said that the Mafia was too lazy to calculate percentages.
Is the pizzo paid by cash or credit card? Cash, because it is harder to trace.
How much is the typical pizzo? 100-200 euros per month.
What happens if you don’t pay the pizzo? A message is sent that becomes more and more severe.
- Glue in the lock of your shop
- Blow up your car
- Blow up your shop
- Death
They don’t want to be a problem for your economy because it affects their money. However, it isn’t really about the money. It is about power.
If you yield to the Mafia by paying the pizzo, they can require that you hire a friend of theirs even if he isn’t qualified. Or require you to buy products from other mafia connected suppliers. They may even provide a shop for you to run your business … but they will ask for something in return.
Movies
100 Steps is a story about the Mafia in the nearby city of our guide.
The Traitor is about a Mafia informer named Tommaso Buscetta. His information was instrumental in learning how the Mafia works, and over 500 people were jailed.
Inspector Montalbano, a TV series about the Mafia.
Mafia Heirarchy
A Mafia family can be 10 to 50 individuals. The owner puts the Mafia family before his own blood family. Here is how one climbs the Mafia ladder:
- Soldiers ask for money and start about the age of 16.
- Capo
- Underboss
- Boss (The Godfather)
- Consigliere was an advisor.
The Beast was a capo that was unusually brutal.
Religion
On Sundays and Mondays, the Mafia is found in the churches. They give the church a lot of money.
John Paul II was the first Pope to speak out forthrightly against the Mafia in a speech he gave in Agrigento, Sicily. In 1993, he called on the men of the Mafia to repent. In public, he said that the Mafia are not Christians.
What time is it? Laundry Time
This laundry machine was in a small alcove on the busiest street in Palermo. Nothing like airing your dirty laundry out to everyone in town. Detergent was automatically provided during washing. Rob went to get pizza for us while I stayed with the laundry and fielded many questions.
What time is it? Cannoli Time
We were told that the best cannolis in town were found at the Holy Catherine of Alexandria Church and Monastery of Palermo.
From 1311 until 2014 it welcomed cloistered nuns of the Dominican order. Since 2017 it has been open to the public and can now be visited as a museum of sacred art.
Inside there is a sweet shop, where the sweets of various monasteries of Palermo are reproduced according to the ancient recipes of the nuns.
I went back to our hotel and fell right asleep complete with snoring. I think that I fell victim to a sugar induced food coma.
What Time is it? Dinner Time
Friend and fellow world traveller, Deb, recommended a restaurant in Palermo called La Galleria. When we made a reservation for an outside table, we didn’t know that it was going to rain. Our waiter said that there were no tables inside so we tried to be strong and accept our fate.
After about 10 minutes, they put another table inside and told us to come inside. Hallelujah. The only proviso was to complete our meal in 45 minutes. No problem!! Rob had swordfish, and I had a Sicilian dish called pasta con la sarde – spaghetti with sardines, fennel, raisins and other ingredients.
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