If you read a SMS like, “can you please come to university and stand by me for my last exam?”, wouldn’t you drop everything and go? Well, that is exactly what I did.

So, I rode my bike through the inner city, which is a mix of Arabic style streets, historic buildings and craft shops alongside ethnic shops. It’s dotted with wonderful monuments, such as the square of shame, so named for the nude statues, which caused a scandal in 1500.

I found my friend with a book, sat, relaxing in the amazing courtyard of the law faculty. Speaking of the which, there’s a funny legend about the courtyard. Well, it’s funny for me but not for those studying law in Palermo: the legend says that if you walk in the centre of the cloister, you’ll never graduate. Never. So, it’s funny because very few students take the risk and do it and prefer to walk under the arcade.

By the way, my friend had passed his exam and we decided to celebrate it all together with a special lunch. But I was pretty sure that my fridge was almost empty and the occasion was far too special to be celebrated with a sad canned tuna fish.

Luckily, if you need to do the shopping and you’re in the inner city, you’re just spoilt of choice: Ballarò, Vucciria or Capo are typical, coloured markets where you can find almost everything. Capo is my favourite one, because of this long narrow street, full of fruit and fish stands you can see through one of the ancient gates to the city.

But we didn’t go there as tourist, of course: we had to make a good lunch. I never know what to buy when I’m in a market because I’m not exactly good at cooking but in Capo market there’s my special advisor, my trusted greengrocer that always suggests what I should buy and how to prepare a good lunch. I must confess, that’s why Capo is my favourite market!

A little chat with my trusted greengrocer and I made my choice: pasta with tomatoes, eggplant, swordfish and mint. As usual, the kitchen immediately turned into a mess, with tomatoes and peppers rolling all over the place. I tried to make everything with an I-know-exactly-what-I’m-doing expression and, lots of fried eggplant and hours later; our pasta was ready to eat.

And after all, I have to be honest with you: I Googled the recipe!

Each week Sicilian Girl will be giving us the chance to see more of the Sicilian way of life through her eyes and all yo have to do is click below. Enjoy! 

And to see what else she has been up to on Swide, click below.