My first time in Sicily, staying in Palermo in a seedy hotel in the Kalsa district. Abandoned after the second world war, when I was there in 2005, it was just beginning a long phase of regeneration.
There were small temporary bars in wrecked buildings, little restaurants in corners and plenty of street food. After dark, the street lights and narrow cobbled streets, the juxtaposition of wrecked and Baroque buildings created a slightly eerie atmosphere.