Palermo street markets

DISAPPEARING TRADITIONS: PALERMO'S STREET MARKETS

Markets are an integral part of Palermo life and a colorful, traditional sight where Palermitano dialects fly through the meat and fish stalls .Wandering through the main markets Ballarò , Vucciria and il Capo you can see that many of the streets have been reduced to dirt roads between the buildings and sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you're indeed in a major European city or a North African Casbah. Sicily's outdoor market tradition dates from the ninth-century Saracen rule of the island, which explains their striking similarity to Arab souqs. Sicily's outdoor markets stand on the very same sites today as they did in the tenth century and the character has remained essentially the same over these last centuries.

Although many of the stands are taken over by the sons of their owners, the markets are in danger as Mafia-controlled construction companies seized the opportunity to erect inexpensive new buildings rather than refurbish old ones . Although there are people like Leoluca Orlando, the anti-Mafia mayor of Palermo who prevented developers from razing old neighborhoods, before leaving office in 2000, there's new construction, new developments all around and many fear that the old markets won't survive.

It was a perfect photographic opportunity forme to see fishermen in aprons cutting fish on tables balanced on plastic crates as stray cats look on waiting for a chance to steal a morsel and watch traditions unfold as they've unfolded for centuries. Aòthough they would never pass the E.U. control in Brussels or the big supermarket chains’ requests let's hope those markets will continue to survive in the future .

Photographs taken between 23 and 28 of May 2016 by Tudor Nicoleta Raluca in Palermo , Sicily, Italy