My wife and I are travelling too and staying in Palermo for a week in October. Has anyone stayed in the last couple of weeks encounter any problems? Thanks Bill. Don't listen at that trash. Please go to Palermo and enjoy. Chicago and Detroit won't be safer than Palermo. Ignore media sensationalism. The migrants have not caused problems for tourists anywhere in Italy. And talk of mafia wars is just plain nonsense. Palermo is a delightful city, a treasure trove of things to see and do.
That said, Palermo is a large city, a real working city, and not for everyone, just as a tourist town like Taormina isn't for everyone. Hi Bill, I won't add anything to what said by others, except that I hope that media talking about current mafia wars in Palermo is an exaggeration in your post.
Because if this is what they actually say, these people shouldn't be granted the right to call themselves journalists. There can be inner conflicts among different mafia clans, but nothing that can be called a war, and nothing that a tourist would be able to notice although I was only a kid I can remember the last part of the actual mafia-war period, in the early 90s, it was a terrible period and it bothers me a lot when this wording is used lightly.
TripAdvisor staff has removed this post because it did not meet TripAdvisor's forum guidelines with regards to off-topic chat. Please limit conversations to subject matter directly related to the host forum. For example: when in the London forum, please stick to topics that relate to travel within the London Metropolitan Area. Off-Topic Chatter is a forum for discussions gone afield from the topic of travel. Please note that the Off-Topic Chatter forum is un-moderated -- the Forum Posting Guidelines are not enforced, with the exception of pornographic images or text, hate speech, unauthorized re-prints of copyrighted text, and messages that promote or encourage illegal activities.
Each user is expected to take responsibility for his or her own conduct. We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. The only mafia a tourist might encounter are posteggiatori, the car parkers, otherwise mafia is invisible to tourists. I was merely trying too ascertain whether is was a safe place to visit as certain media is trying to say that it is not. Is that not okay to ask?
