PALERMO: WHAT TO DO AND SEE IN TWO DAYS

17 Jul PALERMO: WHAT TO DO AND SEE IN TWO DAYS

I was told to leave my camera at home while visiting Palermo and to be really careful.

Even if there were moments when I felt uncomfortable, I don’t think any tourist should worry so much.

Palermo can be dodgy, but if you visit it responsibly, as you would do in any other part of the world, inclusive your home town, it’s not dangerous.

That’s why I have only iPhone pictures though…

But enough with this rambling, and more about Palermo!

 

Palermo is both majestic and degraded, both classy and smelly, both outrageously rich and unbelievably poor.

Is one of the most interesting cities I’ve ever visited.

When you walk in Palermo, it feels like being in Greece, or in some arabic country, or even in Scandinavia, because of its legacy from the rule of each of these countries, and it feels like the 1920, the 1800, the arabic middle age and back to our days.

It’s a city rich in history, culture and architecture, but also in art, music and food.

We visited it briefly in 2 days, and we loved it! Here our impressions, advices and iPhone pictures of this fantastic city:

 

WHAT TO SEE IN PALERMO

Politeama, Teatro Massimo and Via Maqueda

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I would advise to start your itinerary in Piazza Re Ruggero Settimo, the very center of the city and house of the Politeama, one of the attractions of the city.

From there (behind the Politeama) you can even take the sightseeing buses, though we decided to discover Palermo by feet without much problems and getting to see pretty much everything.

Done with the Politeama, proceed to the Teatro Massimo and then take via Maqueda, one of the main streets in Palermo and access to some of the most important attractions of the city.

 

my own half sicilian boy by the Teatro Massimo

 

the first attraction you will encounter in via Maqueda is piazza Vigliena,

better known as “quattro canti”,

a square that boasts 4 embroided facades or rare beauty and antiquity

 

by the “palazzo pretorio”, a few steps after the “quattro canti”

 

in front of “palazzo pretorio” views of the Church of “San Giuseppe dei Teatini”

 

a few meters after “Palazza Pretorio” another great point of interest will cross your path:

the chuch of San Cataldo

 
 

views of San Cataldo Church

San Cataldo Church, beside being a beautiful example of arabic-norman architecture, captured my interest and fantasy because it is mysteriously connected to the myth of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcre, an order, I discovered actually reading about this Church, which is still existing!

 

Ballarò Market

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From via Maqueda you can easily follow the signs to get to the Ballarò market, an open market that is exactly how you’d think an italian market would be: chaotic, cheap, smelly, local, dirty, and incredibly charming.

You can buy everything in here, from fruits to garments, from fish to electronics and really anything that comes to your mind.

In fact, it reminded me very much of the baazars I visited in Istanbul.

Italian mamas and locals buy here, so you will definitely feel the city as the locals are.

 

ballarò entrance

 
 

apparently land snails are a delicacy in Sicily…

 

via Vittorio Emanuele, the Cathedral and the Palace of the Normans

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From the “quattro canti” square, if you proceed up via Vittorio Emanuele you will get to two of the most famous attractions of Palermo: the Palace of the Normans and the Cathedral, almost one in front of the other.

Adiacent to the Palace is the “Porta Nuova” a gate that once served as a main entrance to the city.

Pass it to get to one of the best pastry shops in town: Santoro in Piazza Indipendenza.

 

the Palace of the Normans

 

Palermo catheral

 

The parks: Villa Bonanno and the English Garden

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Nature is hands down the thing that surprised me the most in Palermo: in no other cities in the entire world I’ve seen such a luxuriant vegetation, with parks that host giant magnolia trees and flowers of every colors, so thriving that you will feel as you were in one of the Salgari’s books, set in the middle of the Bangladeshi jungles.

Palermo is a city of many parks, we visited two of them: villa Bonanno, basically in front of the Palace of the Normans, and the English garden in via della Libertà, accessible from our “start point” the Politeama.

 
 

Villa Bonanno and its incredible flora

 

this giant magnolia tree is one of the many wonders of the English Garden,

an incredibly well kept park flocking with gallivanting teenagers

 

Kalsa, the Zisa palace and Monreale

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I’m so bummed I don’t have any picture of the spooky Zisa Palace and the adiacent Kalsa neighborhood in which the Palace is placed, as it is one of the most interesting yet weird places I’ve ever seen.

The Zisa is a castle of arabic origins and it’s located in the fascinating and degraded arabic neighborhood: the Kalsa.

According to my boyfriend, it’s surrounded by mysteries and weird frightening facts.

True or not, as funny as it may sounds, I didn’t have the courage to enter the Zisa Palace:

we walked thorugh the whole city to get to it under a storm. After getting lost in the arabic quarter, we finally arrived at destination.

The palace stood deserted in that grey stormy light, looking like a spooky castle out of a vampire tale.

The big gate that led to it through the naked garden looked exactly like one of those horror movies’ gates that always close behind you.

Surrounded by the degraded and mysterious arabic Kalsa quarter and with my boyfriend that kept telling me stories of demons and other oddities related to this ancient and mysterious building, I pretty much found myself running for the bus to take protection from fear, rain and tired feet

 

For what concerns Monreale, one of the biggest attractions of Palermo, we coudn’t visit it due to lack of time.

In my defence I can say that we spent a lot of our Palermo time stuffing ourselves with good food at my boyfriend’s relatives’.

In fact, I have from Palermo the cutest and most extraordinary souvenir one could ever get: a crochet centerpiece hand-made by no less than a genuine palermitan granny, my boyfriend’s.

 

Mondello, Capo Gallo and Monte Pellegrino

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No visit to Palermo is complete without a stop by its iconic and mundane beach: Mondello.

I made dedicated posts about Mondello and the adiacent Capo Gallo nature reserve, click on the links to go to it.

Monte Pellegrino is one of the two hills that frame Mondello, and beside offering amazing views on it, it hosts a very quirk sanctuary dig in the heart of the montain.

Unfortunately we could not reach it due to some road maintenance works that made it unaccessible by car.

Anyway, you can reach the sanctuary even by feet, or with the bus n. 812 from Piazza Sturzo (behind the Politeama), while Mondello is accessible with bus n.806 from the Politeama.

 

Lastly, another big attractions of this city is the food.

I wanted to include it in this post but I’m afraid it would be an overload, must take it for next one

Sicilian granitas and panelle panini will be the highlights of the next post! 😉