Mario Carbone’s travel guide to Palermo, where the restaurateur is getting married

Chef and restaurateur Mario Carbone and his fiancée chose the Sicilian island for their destination wedding after falling in love with it on a visit: “This is it, this is the place where we’re getting married, we can stop looking now.”

My current obsession is Palermo, Sicily. It’s relatively new to me, and I’ve been there several times in the past few months. I am getting married there this summer, so I’ve been there a couple of times now to get everything set up. We’re going through the process of wedding planners and visiting venues and restaurants, and so you get a really good lay of the land. It’s a special city. I’m part Sicilian, so we liked the idea of Sicily, and we thought that if you’re going to do a destination wedding, which can be a very annoying thing for your guests, that you should at least provide them with somewhere they haven’t been to yet. I knew that the city was going to have enough of all the things we needed — hotel rooms, restaurants and everything. And then when we visited, we fell in love with it.

About six weeks ago, with my fiancée and our party planners. We’ve done the big things on the to-do list, now it’s just death by a thousand paper cuts. It’s actually quite a lot like opening a restaurant.

I found that my little happy place there is Villa Igiea, the Rocco Forte hotel. Even though it’s on the water, it doesn’t feel like the seaside; it still feels like it’s part of the city, because it’s centrally located and in this classically restored old building. They’ve done a really nice job of not overly touching it, while still bringing it up to date. It’s got this very cool bar in a room with beautiful vaulted ceilings that’s really cosy at night. And when it’s warm out, there’s a gorgeous outdoor dining area right by the water. It’s a very cute place.

So far, some of my favourite food has been the street food. There are definitely some adventurous things happening at the street markets. I went up to one stall run by an old man, and he had a couple of customers, so I was interested. I’m a chef, I’ll eat anything, right? So I pull up to this guy, and he’s got a pile of bread on one side and a big cauldron on the other side. And I asked him what he was selling; he was telling me, and I didn’t get it. I was like, “I don’t know those words,” even though I speak the language pretty well. He points to his stomach, and I’m like, “Oh my god, you’ve got spleen sandwiches, don’t you?” The Anthony Bourdain in me was saying that I should, but honestly, I moved on to the next stall.

There’s a monastery, Santa Caterina, that has a pastry shop in the back, and they make all the traditional things, like cassata. They also have a cannoli station, so they have these big fried cannoli shells, which they fill as you order. And then they have bowls at the end for dipping. Pistachios, chocolate chips. I started calling it holy cannoli. They’re spectacular.

One day, when I was exploring, I stumbled upon this ancient-looking marionette puppet show. It was near somewhere I was eating, and there’s this baby stage, with like 40 seats, and they put on four shows a day. These marionettes are 100 years old. It’s like the third or fourth generation family running the show, and they play out the scenes using these giant marionettes. Part creepy, part cool. And it reminded me of The Godfather, because there’s that great scene of marionettes in the street.

I don’t know many people who live locally, but I can’t wait to bring people there for my wedding. The first person that comes to mind is a guy named Mark Iacono. He’s the owner of a famous pizzeria in Brooklyn called Lucali. He’s one of those people who’s hilarious, but he’s not trying to be. He’s just funny, his mannerisms are funny. He’s born and raised in Brooklyn, the most Brooklyn person you’ll ever meet, and he’s Italian, but he’s Italian-American, so it’s going to be very fun to watch him in Italy.

They make orangecello in Palermo, and that’s a fun gift. They’re great at all the sweets and preserves and things that you can actually take home with you.

A straw hat, good linens and woven, closed-toe sandals. Men should never show their toes.

I was just talking to my fiancée about the tarantella, which is the traditional Sicilian wedding song, and it comes with a dance, which is a little bit like the Hokey Cokey.

I visited a villa that I believe a princess still lives in. Palermo went through this amazing baroque period in the 1800s, so there’s these really epic old villas and palazzos that are so grand. I visited one called Villa Valguarnera that is stuck in time. It’s imperfectly perfect in all the most glorious ways.

My first trip there with my fiancée. We took a drive up some random hill, and we were able to see all across the city from where we were. It was sunset, we were taking some pictures. And I think we just realised, “This is it, this is the place where we’re getting married, we can stop looking now.”