# Cicero

Cicero is a town of 81,000 people (2019) in the Chicagoland area, just west of the Chicago city limits. It became famous when gangster Al Capone moved here to escape from the Chicago Police in the early 1920s.

## Get in
### By train

* The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). runs the Pink Line from Chicago proper. The Pink Line runs parallel to Cermak Road, with stops at Cicero and 54th/Cermak (which has a secondary exit on Laramie Avenue).
* Metra operates the BNSF Line running between downtown Chicago and Aurora, with one stop in the city of Cicero located on Cicero Avenue near Ogden Avenue. Service is much less frequent than on the CTA Pink Line.

### By bus

The CTA operates the following routes:
* 12 Roosevelt starts on the Near South Side close to Downtown and travels along Roosevelt Road through the West Side, skirting the northern border of Cicero before terminating at Harrison Street and Central Avenue in Austin.
* 18 16th/18th starts in the Near South Side and travels through Pilsen and the Far West Side before terminating in Cicero at 16th Street and Cicero Avenue.
* 21 Cermak comes from the same neighborhoods as the 18, running along Cermak Road through Cicero before terminating in neighboring Berwyn.
* 54 Cicero starts in the Far Northwest Side and runs south along Cicero Avenue through the Far West Side, terminating in Cicero at Cicero Avenue and 24th Place.
* 54B South Cicero starts at the Ford City Mall on the Southwest Side and runs north along Cicero Avenue through the Southwest Side (passing by the Midway Airport stop on the Orange Line) and Cicero before terminating at Cermak Road and Kenton Avenue near the Cicero/Chicago border.
Pace is the main suburban bus operator in Chicagoland and operates the following routes:
* 302 starts in La Grange at the town's Amtrak/Metra station and takes a jagged route east through the western suburbs. In Cicero the route runs east on 26th Street, north on Laramie, and east on Cermak, terminating near the Cicero Pink Line station.
* 305 starts to the northwest in River Forest/Oak Park, passing by the Harlem Green Line station, runs through Forest Park, passing by the Forest Park Blue Line station, and then runs on Roosevelt Road along the northern edge of Berwyn and Cicero, before turning south into Cicero and mostly running along Laramie Avenue.
* 315 is a U-shaped route serving Cicero, Berwyn, and Oak Park. In Cicero it runs along Austin Boulevard.
* 322 starts at the Yorktown Center in Lombard and then continues east along Cermak Road through the western suburbs, including Cicero. The route terminates at the 54th/Cermak Pink Line station.

## Do

The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago was founded by Lithuanian Chicagoans in 1956, and presents operas in Lithuanian. It celebrated fifty years of existence in 2006, and operates as a not-for-profit organization. It is noteworthy for performing the rarely-staged Rossini's William Tell (1986) and Ponchielli's I Lituani (1981, 1983 and 1991), and also for contributing experienced chorus singers to the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

## Buy

* Sanchez Brothers Western Clothes, 6031 W. Cermak Rd, ☏ +1 708 863-7850. 10AM-8PM daily. Live out your mariachi fantasies here. The Sanchez Brothers carry all sorts of specialty clothing for Mexican bands, from cowboy hats to iguana skin boots! $20-5,000.

## Eat

* Indio Restaurant, 6037 W Cermak Rd, ☏ +1 708 863-5714.
* La Quebrada, 4859 W Roosevelt Rd, ☏ +1 708 780-8110. Su-F 7:30AM-10PM, Sa 7:30AM-11PM. Regional dishes from the south of Mexico's Pacific Coast. One of the best places in the Chicago area to have a nice, authentic, sit-down Mexican meal. $9-16.

## Sleep

* Cindy Lyn Motel, 5029 W Ogden Ave, ☏ +1 708 656-1730.
* Shamrock Motel, 1212 S Cicero Ave, ☏ +1 708 656-6670.