Palermo invented street food and still takes it seriously.

This three-hour tour starts near the Central Station and moves through the Albergheria neighborhood into Ballarò, the oldest market in the city, trading since the 10th century. The streets are narrow, the vendors are loud, and the food is exactly what it has always been.

You start with panelle and crocchè at a friggitoria that has been frying chickpea fritters and potato croquettes since 1947. Into Ballarò, where Luciano at Forno Storico has been baking sfincione for 56 years — the Palermitano version with tomato and caciocavallo, and the Bagherese with tuna, cheese, and onion. At Macelleria Bilello, grilled Sicilian sausage with fennel and mangia e bevi, a pancetta-wrapped spring onion cooked slowly over charcoal. Along the way, the baroque interior of Casa Professa, a church that surprises everyone who steps inside.

At Babbalù, an arancina — the round, saffron-scented rice ball that Palermo will argue about forever. At Piazza Pretoria, a Renaissance fountain that arrived from Florence in 644 pieces. At I Segreti del Chiostro, a cannolo filled on the spot inside a cloistered monastery by nuns following recipes that have not changed in centuries.

Casa Stagnitta closes the tour with a coffee roasted on the premises, in a shop the Financial Times named one of the finest artisanal roasteries in the world.

Come hungry and discover why Palermo's street food has been feeding this city for over a thousand years!