Palermo - Sicily - page 125

Palermo's art scene is this multi-level museum housed in a restored 18th-century neoclas-
sical palazzo . Its curators work with other city and regional institutions to provide altern-
ative interpretations of Sicily's artistic heritage and to stage challenging international sur-
vey shows. It also has a good bookshop and a stylish ground-floor cafe (the latter closed
indefinitely at research time).

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1 Vucciria

The shabby Vucciria neighbourhood is known throughout Sicily for its Mercato della
Vucciria, the inspiration for Sicilian painter Renato Guttuso's most important work, La
Vucciria (1974), described by writer Leonardo Sciascia as 'a hungry man's dream'.
Once the heart of poverty-stricken Palermo and a den of crime and filth, the Vucciria il-
lustrated the almost medieval chasm that existed between rich and poor in Sicily up until
the 1950s. Though it's still quite shabby, the quarter is one of Palermo's most fascinating
areas to explore, with most of its interesting buildings in the vicinity of the imposing 17th-
century Chiesa di San Domenico OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP (Church of Saint Domenic;

091 58 91 72;

9.30am-noon Tue-Sat) . Piazza San Domenico;