According to the Financial Times the city is now “free from the grip of the mafia” and “offers new possibilities”. However, it is not for those “looking for efficiency and services are poor”
«When Francesco was a boy, his hometown, Palermo, was a city under siege. Once a commercial center of the Mediterranean and a jewel of the Belle Époque, it had been transformed into a battlefield for the Sicilian mafia in its internal rivalries and in its war against the Italian state.”
Thus begins the long story of the Financial Times dedicated to Palermo and its rebirth.
The Rome correspondent, Amy Kazmin, tells the stories of those who, after having lived elsewhere for many years, return to the Sicilian capital and see the city with different eyes. «Return to Palermo», is in fact the title of the long article.
Among the impressions collected about the city is that of the architect Michelangelo Pavia, raised in Milan by Sicilian parents, “returned” – and remained – to his homeland in 2010.
«I had an emotional relationship with this city – he explains to the FT – I earn less than what I earned in Milan but I save more and my sense of well-being – mental, physical, psychological – is much higher.”
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Beatrice Gibson also confirms this aura of well-being linked to the lifestyle led on the island: «Capitalism hasn’t really taken hold here… you feel a different energy that is very visceral, sensorial and compelling.”
The artist-filmmaker, her director husband and their two children arrived in Palermo from London by car during the pandemic, aided by friends with ties to the city.
«It was that typical Palermo warmth: people said ‘why don’t you come here?» The couple settled in for the long term, purchasing a large living and working space that had been empty for years.
«It’s not like a North American, North European neoliberal metropolis. It’s something completely different,” Gibson says.
In the long article, the Financial Times correspondent retraces the different phases of the city, from «jewel of the Belle Époque», to «battlefield for the mafia»passing through demographic decline in search of more economic opportunities and greater security.
In the eyes of those who returned after Covid, however, the city now seems to “emanate possibilities”.
The British newspaper depicts a Palermo full of excitement: «now Palermo – we read – is full of new initiatives, from coworking spaces for digital nomads to alternative film, theater and literature festivals and art exhibitions. Many of these activities take place in a disused industrial park, whose empty workshops and warehouses have been transformed into vibrant cultural spaces.”
A concept already anticipated in the summary: «Once a jewel of the Mediterranean, in the 1980s the Sicilian capital had become dilapidated and dangerous. Now, freed from the grip of the mafia, a rebirth is underway».
The city councilor inspired the – even too optimistic – vision of the relationship between the city and Cosa Nostra Dario Falzone: «We cannot say that the mafia has been completely eliminated, but its grip on the city has been interrupted – he told the London newspaper – The mafia system is becoming smaller and smaller and has a different approach than in the past. It works in the shadows.”
Mafia discussion aside, all that glitters is not gold, according to the Financial Times Palermo: «It’s not for those looking for efficiency, after decades of notorious government corruption, when public works contracts were awarded to mafia-linked businesses. Public services are poor, the bureaucracy is dense and the times are too long.
The number of residents continues to decline, in line with broader trends in Italy, which population is aging and decreasing. Yet newcomers, returnees and young residents are revitalizing a city that is recovering from the mafia’s reign of terror.”
The financial daily also winks at restaurateurs and hoteliers, underlining that the capital is an increasingly popular destination for foreign tourists, especially thanks to luxury tourism, and also provides some data: «tourists are arriving en masse, with around 1 million passengers expected for cruise ships this year, compared to 460,000 in 2017.”
