Hello,
I am heading to Palermo, Sicily next month by myself for a yoga retreat. We have 2 planned excursions, (a walking tour, and a street food tour.) As I am traveling on my own, I want to make sure I blend in with the locals as much as possible. I am trying to plan what to pack, and the biggest thing that is giving me pause is shoes for the daytime. I read heels is what local women wear out for dinner, but at a loss for the rest of the day.
Thanks for the help!
We were in Sicily last April and I wore my Birkenstocks, even to a dinner and wine tasting at an upscale winery. Don’t stress over it. Besides, if you’re not adept at walking in heels on cobblestone forget about it. It’s a sprained ankle waiting to happen.
Wear what you find comfortable (as in comfort and style). Don't waste a second worrying about it.
I don't own a pair of heels and don't ever intend to wear them for the rest of my life!
After 5 trips to Italy and hopefully #6 coming up in May, I have always been treated with courtesy and kindness.
And I am now 71 solo female traveler for going on 20 years now. ( and yoga practice also)
Hi, congratulations on your solo trip adventure!
It sounds wonderful.
I've been to Italy 12 times and have yet to see a tourist or visitor wearing heels at dinner.
I'm quite sure those heel-wearing women are dining at very upscale resorts and luxury hotels, and have not walked a single street to get there!
Italy is full of cobbled streets and broken uneven sidewalks, so you need to pack shoes that are flat-ish and comfortable to walk in.
For my shoes that I wear out to dinner, I take slip-on very plain black Skechers.
They are like slippers after walking all day in other sturdier shoes, but comfy enough to be safe on the streets so I don't break an ankle.
For your day time tours, you need comfy supportive walking shoes, runners or sandals.
There are so many types out there you will have no trouble finding some.
Just break them in before you travel if they are new.
I'm going to Palermo soon too, and am bringing running shoes to walk in, Columbia walking sandals if it gets warm, and my black Skechers for a change of shoe at night.
Don't try and blend in with the locals, be comfy instead.
I went to Palermo, Catania, Ragusa and Noto solo a few months ago. I wore extremely plain clothes (khaki pants and plain black sweater, for example) and Doc Martens boots. Since I was alone, I was hoping to be unnoticed, but I was easily picked out as American.
I did write about my experience traveling solo in Sicily in the trip report section if you want to read it, but I can tell you from successfully blending in on previous Italy trips and from being in Sicily recently, you might see strappy sandals or wedge sandals at night, but in general, women weren't toddling around on heels. People in Sicily also seem to think anything under 65F is cold weather, so they wear sweaters and scarves and blazers if there's even a little chill. Flowy, printed items seemed to be popular for tops and dresses. Flowy pleated dress pants and cropped tops (not so much showing midriff, just meeting the pants) on the younger set and fitted bright suit style pants and scarves on the older set. There were some longer high waisted skirts with slits and fitted cropped tops as well.,
On previous trips I wore things like high waisted pants with thin sweaters (not me in the photo, lol) or patterned button ups, a shorter skirt with tights and a thin ribbed turtleneck, distressed cropped straight leg jeans with a white tank top and a super lightweight casual blazer, a long spaghetti strap dress with a lightweight fitted shirt underneath, and a remix of all those items (like putting the dress with the blazer, etc...). I don't know how much of it is my Roman profile, but I noticed that, when we ordered food or walked around, people tended to speak to me and my teenagers in Italian first even if they spoke to those around us in English first.
We were clocked as American more than once, of course, but my favorite was when I only said a few words of Italian to catch a taxi and the driver chatted away to me the whole way up a mountain. I understood just enough of what he said to follow until I missed something and had to ask him to repeat because I really only speak English. He let out the most disappointed groan and said, "Eeeggghh, English!" and stopped talking to me entirely! My daughters were cracking up.
I noticed when we were in Milan two summers ago that lots of the women wore white sneakers with their outfits. This was a contrast to a visit probably 15 years ago when all the women were dressed in heels. The only white sneakers were walking style shoes on tourists.
Sleigh-I loved your Italian taxi story!
I grew up in Florence, which has always been crowded with tourists and I could always tell a foreigner from an Italian no matter what they wore. People in Palermo will be able to do the same. So, forget blending with the locals. Just wear comfortable shoes and clothes, as nobody will care if you look like a tourist from abroad.
