Postcard from Palermo: United Colors of Panic

No one's immune, except perhaps the Sephora cosmetics store. Sale posters in the windows of every designer, from Armani to Zara. Most are holding the line at 40 or 50 percent, but Benetton's out there with 70 percent discounts. Fashion-conscious Italians, and that's virtually the entire population, spend heavily on designer clothing, but the weather's been icky the past month and the shoppers aren't buying. Restaurants and smaller shopkeepers haven't followed suit; they don't have the sophisticated systems to predict how bad that sinking feeling's going to get. La maledizzione!