Description
Mondello is Palermo's beach: a semicircular bay of about 1,500 meters, tucked between Monte Pellegrino and Monte Gallo, some seven kilometers from the center. Pale sand, clear water and Liberty villas make it the city's most famous seaside resort.
The first reason to go is the sand: it doesn't come from rock, but from microscopic fragments of shells carried ashore by the Posidonia meadow in the middle of the gulf. It is white, fine and soft, as on tropical shores. In spring the waterline can turn pink, thanks to a tiny marine organism.
Then there's the neighborhood. Mondello was born as a garden city in the early twentieth century, and its Liberty villas, many from the school of Ernesto Basile, are among the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Italy. Don't miss Villino Lentini, with frescoed flowers on its facade, and the Antico Stabilimento Balneare on Viale Regina Elena.
On either side stretch two nature reserves, Monte Pellegrino and Capo Gallo, with caves, cliffs and rare Sicilian flora. On a rocky point stands the Torre del Fico d'India, from the fifteenth century.
The Arabic name, Marsa 'at Tin, means "port of mud," and it was no compliment: until the late nineteenth century there was a marsh here, and malaria killed people working in the fields. The man who tackled the problem was the Prince of Scalea, who in 1865 put together a committee.
After twenty-five years of studies, work began in 1891. A horseshoe-shaped collector was built: the sea flowed in and swept the sediment away. The ponds disappeared, and malaria with them.
So began the elegant era. The Florio industrialists hosted Europe's royals and the great names of industry here, and in 1909 a Belgian company committed to building the garden city, with villas, a hotel and a bathing establishment on stilts. The tram to Palermo opened in 1912.
There was no shortage of records: on May 1, 1910 the pilot Clemente Ravetto made the first motorized flight with a pilot aboard in Sicily, at Mondello.
The first reason to go is the sand: it doesn't come from rock, but from microscopic fragments of shells carried ashore by the Posidonia meadow in the middle of the gulf. It is white, fine and soft, as on tropical shores. In spring the waterline can turn pink, thanks to a tiny marine organism.
Then there's the neighborhood. Mondello was born as a garden city in the early twentieth century, and its Liberty villas, many from the school of Ernesto Basile, are among the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Italy. Don't miss Villino Lentini, with frescoed flowers on its facade, and the Antico Stabilimento Balneare on Viale Regina Elena.
On either side stretch two nature reserves, Monte Pellegrino and Capo Gallo, with caves, cliffs and rare Sicilian flora. On a rocky point stands the Torre del Fico d'India, from the fifteenth century.
The Arabic name, Marsa 'at Tin, means "port of mud," and it was no compliment: until the late nineteenth century there was a marsh here, and malaria killed people working in the fields. The man who tackled the problem was the Prince of Scalea, who in 1865 put together a committee.
After twenty-five years of studies, work began in 1891. A horseshoe-shaped collector was built: the sea flowed in and swept the sediment away. The ponds disappeared, and malaria with them.
So began the elegant era. The Florio industrialists hosted Europe's royals and the great names of industry here, and in 1909 a Belgian company committed to building the garden city, with villas, a hotel and a bathing establishment on stilts. The tram to Palermo opened in 1912.
There was no shortage of records: on May 1, 1910 the pilot Clemente Ravetto made the first motorized flight with a pilot aboard in Sicily, at Mondello.