How to beat the heat in Sicily like a local
Summer is here and we are melting in Sicily. How to keep your brain from actually dribbling out of your ears? How to actually have the energy to do things like amazing tours with Gobo Tours Italy? Here are the best tips I've gleaned from living in Sicily for beating the heat like a local.
The coffee here in Italy is a dream. Please figure out which local coffee brand is your favorite and indulge often. In Palermo my favorite brand from a local roaster is Morettino. In Napoli I look for Borbone, in Firenze, Jolly caffè. Outside of each coffee shop you'll see signs for the brand of coffee they serve, so you know which ones to visit. While you're sampling coffee all over town, remember to drink water too! Coffee is dehydrating, so this is called drinking responsibly.
It's traditional for bars in Southern Italy to offer you a glass of water with your coffee, naturale o gassata, (natural or fizzy) to drink while you wait for your coffee to be prepared and to cleanse your palatte. North of Rome you have to ask for a glass of water and they might charge you .50 centissimi. I'm sorry. But here in Palermo I've noticed most bartenders don't preemptively offer water to people who don't speak Italian. I suspect it's because of the lack of common language- that a question about water while waiting was a flustering conversation on both sides. Since tourists don't expect it, it's natural not to bother. But please ask for this glass of water if it's not offered, and drink it! If no one offers me a glass of water (for instance when I'm chatting away at the bar in English) I usually just say "Per favore, un po' d'acqua." If you're sitting down and ordering through a waiter he might ask if you want a whole bottle of water, "Una bottiglia d'acqua?" And that's up to you. Feel free to say, "No, solamente un bicchiere grazie" if you only want the free glass.
But, do carry around a bottle of water! There are public fountains here in Palermo where you can refill a bottle with cold, clear, tasty water. I typically use the one on Via Alloro in the Piazzetta Chiesa dei Cocchieri and the one in Foro Italico. I just noticed some good soul has marked many of these public water fountains (but not all) on google maps as 'Acqua Potabile' (drinkable water.) You'll notice Italians, especially men, will really bathe themselves with these fountains. Scooping water and pouring it down the back of their necks and washing their hands and forearms. Our skin is thin there, so this is wonderfully cooling.
Electrolytes
But hydration is more than just water- it's also electrolytes. Every year as the weather warms up here in Italy the tv ads for electrolytes "to help with la stanchezza" (the tiredness) ramp up too. These really do the trick. Did you know electrolytes lose their effectiveness in water? So much for the bottled drinks we guzzle in the US. But mixing a sachet of powdered electrolytes into water and drinking it right away ensures you actually get the will power you seek. Every pharmacy here has a wide variety of powdered electrolytes sold in boxes. I like the Polase brand, especially their raspberry (lampone) flavor. But usually I just pick up a tube of electrolyte pills (Equilibra brand) at the supermarkets. I find those easier to plop into water, no mixing necessary.
Cotton, cotton, linen, linen, cottonThat is your packing mantra. Sadly, linen and cotton are pricey here in Italy. All natural fibers are. Did you know Mussolini really encouraged the Italian polyester industry? Part of his autarky dream. Yet another thing we can "thank" Mussolini for- all the affordable clothes in Italy, and a LOT of the pricey ones too, are made from polyester. Pack wisely and a lot, you'll be sweating through whole outfits and while they'll dry within a few hours if hung outside on the hottest days, it's not unheard of to go through three changes of clothes during the course of an active summer day. And you want to be active while you're here, there's so much to see and do.
But don't overdo it
As tempting as it is to climb that mountain or walk that trail to see those ruins you might never get a chance to see again, Italy doesn't need to rescue another hero who's swayed off the path into a twisted ankle (or worse). Please take the bus or train. Certainly don't do anything you wouldn't do at home. If you don't walk atop castle ramparts at home, Italy isn't the place to take up that new interesting hobby. (I don't know what it is that compels otherwise sane, non-jay walking adults, to walk along stone walls here in the blistering heat, but try to resist the urge.) Here in Palermo our museums are not really air conditioned yet. They still rely on open winds and hoping for breezes. That means you should visit them as early as possible during the mornings and it's ok to skip the higher floors. Or start at the top and work your way down, not up. If you're on a third story when that heat rises you will feel your insides start to cook. Likewise, Valle dei Templi? The marvelous ancient greek ruins atop a blazing, unshaded plateau? Amazing, not to be missed. But if you want a carefree visit to that wonderful site, plan a trip that's not in July or August. If you must go in the summer you'll enjoy yourself, but just protect yourself- high spf sunblock that you re-apply, a sun hat, only breathable clothing, a full water bottle (although you can stop for gelato there too, their cafe is weakly air conditioned.) You'll notice Italians only jog during the earliest morning and at night during the summer. That's also when dogs go for their longest walks.You're doing something really important while you're here- you're drinking in a whole other culture, ways of life, art, architecture, history, new flavors, new facts, new ideas. You're brain is just devouring glucose. Remember to stop and reward yourself with cool treats! I can't manage a gelato in brioche breakfast, but I adore a shakerato.
I once saw a very cringey tiktok wherein a northern European woman, while on vacation in Italy, thought she was teaching her waiter and bar how to make an iced coffee. It's true, no bartender I've asked here has had caffè freddo on hand. She ordered a bucket of ice, sugar, a glass of milk and her espresso in a big cup. She then proceeded to assemble her drink at her table, extremely proud of her soup. You should know that Italians will NEVER intervene and stop you from publicly making a fool of yourself. Not out of malice, I think they think that'd compound the embarrassment? Because rest assured, some day that dear lady will learn about shakeratos and scramble to delete her tiktok.
Just ask for a shakerato, if the bartender moves towards a slushy type machine say "no thank you, can you make one by hand?" ("No grazie, puoi fare un shakerato a mano?") In desperation mime shaking a cocktail shaker in the air. They'll understand. That slushy stuff is too disappointing. To make a shakerato a bartender puts ice cubes, espresso, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker and shakes it into foamy deliciousness. It's served 'up' in a cocktail glass so you can watch the foam and espresso layers separate while you sip. Coffee without milk hurts my tummy so I ask for milk in mine. Which always gives the bartenders pause. But we persevere together with mutual assurances that I do indeed want milk added and I've never yet had to resort to assembling a drink at my own table like someone raised in a barn without a door. ("Cresciuto in una stalla senza porta," this is important Italian, I hope you're taking notes.)
You already know about gelato. But if you don't know about granita, that is the next lovely thing you should learn about while you're here in Sicily. It's NOT the same abroad, not even on the mainland 🥲 Gelsi is one of my 19 top favorite flavors and contrary to widespread misinformation (was it you google translate?) it does not mean blackberry, but rather mulberry. Lemony blackberries are in Tuscany, gentle mulberries are the Sicilian fruit. I guess we have enough citrusy flavors here.
On that note- yes, aperol spritzes, so refreshing. But if you get tired of all that sweetness Sicilian white wines are sublime and I really hope you try Sicily's star white wine, grillo. My favorite grillo is from Feudo Disisa- I taste pineapple, a little salinity, and as it warms lime. Heaven. But I've yet to have a bad glass of grillo. Catarratto I'm not so crazy about, I prefer Inzolia. Sicilians are justly proud of their Etna Bianco but honestly, that's not for me either. That lava soil imparts an almost soda bite to the Etna Bianco, which I don't prefer but you might like. A lot of people rave about Etna Bianco. (I also don't drink Chardonnay, all of these things are personal, except everyone loves grillo.) Note that rosè wines are called rosato here in Sicily and also served chilled. (Oh, and a wine tasting tour is coming soon! I've got it half organized.)
Fans
You will want to carry and use a fan. The electric ones are fun but somehow the old fashioned foldable hand fans still do a better job. Men and woman of all ages use them here so don't be shy. If you buy one from a wandering peddler, that's a mitzvah.
Take a couple short showers every day. That's the Sicilian routine, but since our water infrastructure is not what it should be and climate change is causing multiyear droughts you must take these showers the Sicilian way. No, they won't tell you this, it would shock them if you betrayed that you don't already know how to shower like a Sicilian. (Australians already know, it is the rest of us who need to catch up.) The Sicilian way of showering is to turn off the water during all the times you're applying products/ soaping. So what is normally a 7 minute American shower will be 4 minutes at most. You can luxuriate in all the water you want at the beach. You'll notice we'll all just wallowing there.
What else?
Don't be afraid to "look like a tourist." You're going to look like one no matter what you do, different cultures have different styles of walking, clothing, and resting their faces, so that's fine, you'll be clocked as a foreigner. That's only going to make Palermitani more gentle and patient with you, it's not a bad thing. Wear wide brimmed hats, your summer clothes that fit, broken in sneakers, consult your phones in public, no one will judge you for any of that. I would stay away from openly consulting paper maps (no one does that anyway), socks in sandals (that's why god invented sneakers), new shoes, athleisure as day wear (it's not the style here and you'll bake like a potato), being rude to waiters or aggressive bargaining (no, they're not trying to scam you, I promise. Ok, maybe just a couple euros here and there that you won't notice.)
It's traditional here to eat pasta for lunch and not for dinner and for dinner to be a smaller, later meal. Grilled fish, caponata, or just an aperitivo. In the summer that diet makes perfect sense. Local problems (sweltering heat) always have local solutions (see above.) And if in doubt ask me, your friendly tour guide or another local. Or I'll ask them for you.
You're already doing the smartest thing- looking at summer tours to book with me in the mornings and evenings. Bravissimo! We survive every year here and so will you, with just a few simple changes of routine, and some local know how.
