Palermo Travel Guide

Palermo OVERVIEW

For centuries this stupendously sited bay city right below the limestone hulk of Monte Pellegrino was a treasure to be captured. In its rich history you will find Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman reign, an era of Arab domination and Norman conquest, all to be found today in the city's stunning, although often run-down, architecture. Years of the twentieth-century blight that made the place rot with petty and organized crime, overshadowed Palermo's fame for splendor and wealth making it frequently overlooked on tourist itineraries. Don't be one of the discouraged ones for Sicily's capital and the island's largest city is a surprising concoction of Norman palaces, Arab mosque-turned churches and gaudy mafia villas. There are loads of peculiar quality to be discovered in places like the chaotic Vucciria street market, majestic Palazzo dei Normanni or the macabre Convento dei Cappuccini's catacombs lined with the dead. Busy, hectic, intimidating but also extremely enticing, Palermo is Sicily's compact capsule definitely worth a stopover.