We spent our free morning in Palermo, before going to our Cusamano winery visit, with a walk around the city’s old town and a drive to the sea. The highlights for me were a visit to the opera house, the Cappella Palatino and despite the decay, the city’s old town store fronts. Palermo is grungy – more third world in feel – but this makes for some interesting photos and if you’re a Godfather movie buff, there are a number of familiar spots.
1. Teatro Massimo – Palermo’s Opera House
I think it’s well worth taking the 30 minute guided tour of this opera house if you aren’t able to attend an actual performance here. The Teatro Massimo is Europe’s third largest opera house, biggest in Italy, and also has the famous royal box featured in the Godfather III. The guided tour explains the history and also enables a walk through the main rooms.
Teatro Massimo’s website: http://www.teatromassimo.it/eng/
2. A walk around the old town
After leaving the Teatro Massimo, we took a stroll through Palermo’s historical old town, including a walk to one of the popular outdoor street markets (La Vucciria). Unfortunately, we missed most of the morning market activity but there are some stores where we bought some food stuffs and tried some cold cuts. We also took a look inside the Cattedrale di Palermo before heading in the direction of the Norman Palace.
On the whole the walking distance we undertook totaled just under 2 km so it’s an easy walk. But we spent more than an hour given the stops in the stores in La Vucciria and to take photos.
3. The Cappella Palatina and the Norman Palace
The Cappella Palatina is a mush visit, in my view, in Palermo. We walked here – just ten minutes – from the Cattedrale di Palermo, passing the garden of the Villa Bonanno with its palm trees and the city’s landmark gateway, the Porta Nuova. These two spots along with the Cappella Palatina and the Cattedrale di Palermo reflect the city’s strong arabic influences over the years.
The Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel) is the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily in the Palazzo Reale and absolutely stunning. However, there’s always a long queue to come in so I highly recommend having a guide (which allowed us to skip the line) who prearranges the entries. For some, waiting in a long line for what amounts to a five minute visit may not seem worthwhile.
While not as stunning as the public chapel, the private chapel in the apartments of the Norman kings is also impressive. It’s good to try to see both the Cappella Palatina and the royal apartments. The Sicilian parliament (photos not allowed) is also located at the Norman Palace and this can be visited as part of the visit to the Norman Palace.
Norman Palace and Cappella Palatina website: http://www.fondazionefedericosecondo.it/en/norman-palace
4. Palermo’s waterfront
Given limited time for visits to other monuments, we decided instead to take a drive to Palermo’s waterfront. Basically, we just wanted to touch the Mediterranean Sea. For a city that is as dirty as Palermo, the surrounding sea is remarkably clean.
This is very much a full on half day visit of Palermo and I’d suggest starting early or else it would be hard to squeeze in lunch. As it is, we had a really late lunch. On hindsight, I’d try to go to the market – La Vucciria – early as missing the morning fish sales probably makes the place less interesting. Just note, my photos don’t show it but there is a lot of garbage strewn around the streets in Palermo. Those of us living in well sanitized environments like Singapore may find this uncomfortable but I really enjoyed walking around the town.