Restaurants, football, and walks: Gabriele Minì on his hometown

Gabriele Minì’s 2024 campaign may not have ended in the way he wanted but he is still thankful for a lot, including his friends and family in his hometown.
The PREMA Racing driver recently sat down with us to talk about where he is from in Sicily, the six thousand people that live there and how he spends his time when he goes back home.
“So, I’m from a little city in Sicily, it’s close to Palermo, I’ve been living there since I was four, so I think it’s a pretty cool city, pretty nice, especially for the holidays.
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“To be honest my city is quite little, so there’s not too much to do there, but if you want to do something we can go and visit Palermo. It’s quite a nice city, I used to always go there and for sure there are many things and places to visit. I would have to look more into the detail if I were to bring people, but it’s quite nice.
“In my city there are about six thousand people, so not that many people, everyone pretty much knows each other. If you walk around, pretty much everyone knows each other.
“To be honest there are not many many restaurants in my city, but there are a couple about two or three kilometres from where I live. If I go out, my family friend owns a restaurant called the Saloon West, there is another restaurant called The Velvet, but there are many restaurants where you can go eat pizza or a plate of pasta or just some steak.
“I have many, many memories from growing up there. So, there’s not one in particular that I remember but for sure always having my friends. My best friends have always been from there, so having fun with them, going around the city, playing football or going round with the bike.
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“It’s always fun, so when I go back home it’s like my true home, my true house and I always have my friends there.
“There are not so many other things to do though, it’s quite small, the city. If you want to go on a walk there are two main streets where you can go, there is a football pitch where you can go and play and have fun with your friends, which I do if I am free and someone organises.
“They are also building a padel court, and that’s probably the next thing I will do there.
“The weather is also usually quite good, it’s pretty hot. It’s not very humid which is very good but usually it’s pretty good.
“For karting we go to a place that is one hour and 30 from my house, in Kinisia, but to be honest there are quite a few tracks, there are about three, four or five.
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“But my main one is always Kinisia, I always go there and train with my kart pretty much every time I am free on a Sunday, which lately has been very little since I have always been around for F3 races but when I am free, I always go there.
“If I had to tell people to come to my city, I would not say much but maybe just enjoy it.”