12 Top Things to Do in Palermo

The Norman Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) is the oldest royal residence in Europe and today the seat of the Sicilian regional parliament. Its true treasure is upstairs: the Palatine Chapel, a private royal chapel from the 1140s whose every surface is covered in gold Byzantine mosaics beneath a carved Islamic wooden ceiling.

The mosaics depicting Christ Pantocrator and biblical scenes are among the finest medieval art in Europe, and the fusion of Latin, Greek, and Arabic craftsmanship sums up Norman Sicily in a single room. The royal apartments and the Sala di Ruggero add more mosaics of hunting scenes and exotic beasts.

Pro Tip: Book online, as the chapel caps visitor numbers. Note it closes to tourists on parliament sitting days - check before you go, and arrive early to beat tour groups.

Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy and the third largest in Europe, opened in 1897 and fronted by a grand neoclassical portico and bronze lions. Film fans will recognise its steps as the setting for the climactic opera scene in The Godfather Part III.

Guided tours run through the day when there is no rehearsal, taking in the horseshoe auditorium, the royal box, and the echo room beneath the dome. Catching an actual opera or ballet is even better, and cheaper than most European houses of this stature.

Pro Tip: Tours cost about 12 EUR and run in several languages; book a slot online to avoid waiting. Check the performance calendar - upper-tier opera tickets can start under 25 EUR.

The Quattro Canti is the Baroque crossroads at the heart of old Palermo, where the two main streets meet in an octagonal junction framed by four near-identical curved façades. Each of the four corners is decorated with fountains, statues of Spanish kings, and figures of the city's patron saints, stacked in tiers.

A few steps south lies Piazza Pretoria, dominated by the Fontana Pretoria, a giant 16th-century marble fountain crowded with nude mythological figures that so scandalised locals it earned the nickname the Fountain of Shame. Together the two squares are the ceremonial centre of the city.

Pro Tip: Both are free and always open. Come mid-morning when the sun lights up one pair of the Quattro Canti façades, then loop to Piazza Pretoria before the tour crowds arrive.

Ballarò is Palermo's oldest and busiest street market, sprawling through the Albergheria district in a loud tangle of stalls. Vendors sing out the day's prices in Sicilian dialect over pyramids of fruit, silvery fish on ice, and vats of olives, in a scene that has changed little in centuries.

It is also the best place to eat street food on the move: panelle (chickpea fritters), arancine, boiled octopus, and sfincione, the local sponge-like pizza. The market spills toward the Church of the Gesù, one of Sicily's most lavishly decorated Baroque interiors, worth a look while you are here.

Pro Tip: Come hungry in the morning when the market is liveliest and the food stalls are frying. Keep valuables zipped away, and follow the locals to the busiest stalls for the freshest fritters.

On Piazza Bellini stand two of Palermo's finest medieval churches side by side. La Martorana, founded in 1143, dazzles with 12th-century Byzantine gold mosaics, including a famous image of King Roger II being crowned by Christ. Its interior is one of the most beautiful in the city.

Right beside it sits the little Church of San Cataldo, its three red bulbous domes an unmistakable emblem of Arab-Norman Palermo. Bare and austere inside, it is the perfect foil to La Martorana's glittering mosaics, and the pair make a compact, rewarding stop.

Pro Tip: Entry to each is a couple of euros. La Martorana closes midday and during Sunday services, so aim for late morning, and look up at the mosaics near the entrance for the royal coronation scene.

The Capuchin Catacombs are among Palermo's most extraordinary and macabre sights, holding roughly 8,000 mummified bodies in underground corridors. From the 16th to the early 20th century, Palermo's clergy, professionals, and families were embalmed and displayed here, dressed in their finest clothes.

The bodies are arranged by category along the walls - monks, men, women, children, and professionals - many still eerily preserved. The most famous is Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old who died in 1920, so well embalmed she appears to be sleeping. It is a sobering, unforgettable experience, not for the squeamish.

Pro Tip: Entry is about 5 EUR, cash preferred, and photography is not allowed. It sits west of the centre - take a taxi or AMAT bus and combine it with a visit to the nearby Zisa palace.

Mondello is Palermo's beach, a crescent of fine white sand and shallow turquoise water tucked between two headlands about 11 km north of the centre. Developed as a seaside resort in the early 1900s, it is backed by pastel Art Nouveau villas and an elegant Liberty-style bathing pavilion out on the water.

The water stays waist-deep a long way out, making it good for families, and the promenade is lined with gelato stalls and seafood restaurants. In summer half the city decamps here, giving it a festive, local feel far removed from the museum queues of the centre.

Pro Tip: Free public stretches sit between the paid lidos - bring your own towel to skip the sunbed fees. Take AMAT bus 806 from the Politeama area and visit on a weekday to dodge the crowds.

The Vucciria is Palermo's most storied market, once the trading heart of the city and immortalised in Renato Guttuso's famous 1974 painting. By day it is quieter than it used to be, a scatter of fish and produce stalls around Piazza Caracciolo, but it has reinvented itself after dark.

Come evening, the Vucciria becomes Palermo's rowdiest open-air party, as students and locals crowd the alleys around makeshift bars and grills, drinking and eating charred street food late into the night. It is gritty, loud, and thoroughly local - a different side of the city from its churches and palaces.

Pro Tip: Visit by day for photos and the grilled-octopus stalls, or after 9pm on a weekend for the street party. Either way keep valuables secure and carry small cash.

San Giovanni degli Eremiti is one of Palermo's most photographed churches, instantly recognisable for the five rosy-red domes that betray its Islamic-influenced design. Built under Roger II around 1136 on the site of an earlier mosque, it is a textbook example of the Arab-Norman style.

The church interior is spare, but the real draw is the peaceful 13th-century cloister, where twin columns frame a garden of citrus trees, palms, and jasmine - a quiet green pocket a stone's throw from the Norman Palace. It offers a calm contrast to the busy streets outside.

Pro Tip: Entry is about 6 EUR. It pairs naturally with the Norman Palace next door - do both in one loop, and save the shady cloister for the hottest part of the day.

In the hills 8 km above Palermo, the Cathedral of Monreale holds the greatest treasure of Norman Sicily: over 6,000 square metres of golden Byzantine mosaics covering almost every interior surface. The vast Christ Pantocrator in the apse, arms outstretched above the altar, is one of the defining images of medieval art.

Built by King William II in the 1170s, the cathedral is another stop on the UNESCO Arab-Norman route. Beyond the mosaics, climb the tower for views over the Conca d'Oro valley, and visit the serene cloister with its 228 carved twin columns, no two capitals alike.

Pro Tip: Take bus 389 from Piazza Indipendenza (about 35 minutes). The nave is free but the mosaicked areas, tower, and cloister need tickets totalling around 12 EUR. Go early, before the tour buses.

The Foro Italico is Palermo's seafront promenade, a wide grassy park running along the bay just east of the old town. Once the grand waterfront where 19th-century aristocrats took their evening stroll, it fell into neglect and was reborn as a public green space where the city comes to relax.

Today locals jog, cycle, and picnic on the lawns, kids play football, and vendors sell coconut and cold drinks along the water. It is the easiest place to catch a sea breeze after a hot day in the markets, and it links to the historic Kalsa district and its churches just inland.

Pro Tip: Come at sunset when families fill the lawns and the light turns golden over the bay. Combine it with a wander through the atmospheric, half-restored Kalsa quarter behind it.