Reception

Casa Slide / 

The district

Ballarò is one of the truest and most characteristic districts of Palermo, in particular the Ballarò market, with its over 1000 years of history, is one of the oldest testimonies still existing in Palermo. Heart of the Albergheria district, the Ballarò market is so called from Bahlara, a village near Monreale where the Arab merchants came from, or from “Vallaraya”, the name of an Indian king of the Deccan region.

 Frequented daily by hundreds of people, animated by the so-called “abbanniate”, that is by the boisterous calls of the vendors who, with their characteristic and colorful local accent, try to attract the interest of passers-by. It looks like a mass of crowded stalls and with the street invaded by wooden boxes containing the goods that are constantly shouted, hushed, chanted to advertise the good quality and good price of the products.

Mobirise

Ballarò is mainly a food market, mainly used for the sale of fruit, vegetables, spices, meat and fish, but there are also household items for cooking and cleaning the house. For those who want to have lunch in the market, the greengrocers sell cooked foods and street foods, typical of Palermo cuisine, such as boiled or baked onions, panelle (chickpea flour pancakes), crocchè or cazzilli (potato croquettes), vegetables boiled meat, octopus, quarume (veal entrails), sandwich with meusa (spleen).