23 Fabulous Things to do in Palermo Italy, Sizzling Sicilian Capital

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23 Fabulous Things to do in Palermo Italy, Sizzling Sicilian Capital


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There are so many cool issues to do in Palermo Italy! Palermo is the biggest metropolis within the autonomous area of Sicily, with a inhabitants of about 650,000. It sits within the sunshine, surrounded by seashores and nestled in by tall cliffs.

And what a metropolis it’s. Palermo is crammed with loud and passionate folks, beautiful and strange non secular structure, some questionable driving, and completely implausible (and sometimes uncommon) meals.

I just lately spent every week in Palermo — for much longer than most guests spend right here. And let me let you know, this time was very nicely spent!

There are many misconceptions about Palermo — particularly regarding security. Despite the truth that vacationers usually affiliate Palermo with mafia risks, Palermo is a protected metropolis to go to, about as protected as any main European metropolis. (You can learn extra on Palermo security beneath.)

I additionally anticipated Palermo to be simply as brash and loud as Naples — but it surely wasn’t that manner in any respect. Palermo truly felt pretty low-key so far as Italian cities go — not almost as wild as Naples or Rome. Go determine!

Palermo can be extraordinarily good worth for cash. I dwell in Prague, which has a popularity of an inexpensive metropolis (although it’s gotten a lot pricier lately). Palermo is considerably cheaper than Prague, particularly relating to meals and lodging. Big arancine for a euro? That’s lunch!

Palermo is probably not as well-known as Florence or Rome — however this underrated metropolis is nicely price a go to.

This publish was printed in February 2023.

A single statue of an angel on a piazza in Palermo, in front of city roofs and mountains in the distance.

Things to Do in Palermo Italy

You’ll discover on my record of issues to do in Palermo has a variety of church buildings and a variety of meals. Honestly, that’s what Palermo does greatest!

The Arab-Norman structure has earned UNESCO World Heritage Designation for plenty of church buildings within the metropolis — all price visiting.

And the meals! From hearty pastas and wild avenue meals to delectable pastries, Palermo is likely one of the most scrumptious cities I’ve ever visited.

What are good issues to do in Palermo with youngsters?

Kids visiting Palermo will love all of the pastry outlets and enjoying within the sand at Mondello Beach.

What are the very best day journeys from Palermo Italy?

My high suggestions for day journeys from Palermo are the seaside city of Cefalù, the romantic hill city of Erice, and the Greek ruins of Segesta.

Life-changing panzerotti kick off your Palermo meals tour!

Go on a Palermo Street Food Tour with Streaty

If there’s something it’s best to do in your FIRST day in Palermo, it’s go on a meals tour. While I like to recommend doing that in every single place, it’s particularly necessary to take action in Sicily and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY so in Palermo as a result of there are such a lot of distinctive meals right here that you simply gained’t know to order!

Streaty is a Sicilian-owned firm that provides a number of completely different meals excursions in Palermo. On these excursions you’ll have a enjoyable, pleasant information introducing you to a few of the better-known Sicilian specialties (like cannoli and pasta con le sarde) and a few extra wild stuff (insalata musso and donkey mortadella!).

I went on the Classic Sicilian Food & Wine Tour and had SUCH a very good time! This tour is beneficiant with each the meals and wine (OMG a lot wine) and also you go to a variety of cool eating places and get to take a seat down, which doesn’t all the time occur on a strolling tour.

After this tour, you’ll have a number of eating places and spots you’ll wish to go to once more!

A street market in Sicily with people selling food items.
Bollaro Market in Palermo Italy

Palermo Markets

Visiting the road markets is an effective way to get to know Italian cities on an area stage — and that’s very true for Palermo. Palermo may be very a lot a market metropolis, and there are three price visiting: Ballaro, Capo, and Vucciria, all positioned pretty shut to one another.

If you solely have time to go to one market, make it Ballaro. This is the biggest market in Palermo and wandering round it feels SO Sicilian — distributors shouting to you to attempt their cheeses, meats, contemporary juices, and numerous fried meals cooked on the spot, like arancine (not arancini — Western Sicily spells it in another way than Eastern Sicily). It’s wild and welcoming and a full sensory expertise!

Capo is one other good market, positioned near Teatro Massimo. There are a number of nice produce stalls right here and fairly a little bit of avenue meals choices right here, from sfincione pizza to freshly fried panelle chickpea fritters.

Vucciria has lengthy been one of many high markets in Palermo, however lately the market stalls are dwindling and it’s turning extra into an aperitivo or nightlife vacation spot. (More on that beneath.) It’s nonetheless price visiting, and you’ll find avenue distributors turning out only-in-Palermo eats like stigghiola, veal or lamb intestines wrapped round a spring onion and barbecued.

A chapel covered with curving ceilings topped with golden mosaics and images of Christ and the apostles.

Palatine Chapel

As I write this piece, I’m conscious {that a} metropolis like Palermo can provide you main church/UNESCO fatigue. But I visited the Palatine Chapel (Cappella Palatina) and it was so excellent, it crammed me with pleasure.

This chapel is positioned on the second ground of the Norman Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni, or Palazzo Reale/Royal Palace). The constructing appears good, however nothing too thrilling.

And you then get to the chapel. Prepare to be blown away. Gold rains down from each angle. Like the opposite UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Palermo, it’s all in regards to the mixing of religions and cultures, and it feels extra like a Byzantine non secular monument with Islamic influences within the geometric tile patterns.

The mosaics listed below are significantly spectacular, and I used to be stunned at how most of the patterns regarded like basic American quilt patterns I affiliate with Americana. What a shock to see them in Sicily.

Admission to go to the chapel, the palace, and the outside gardens is 11 EUR ($12 USD).

A person on a bicycle standing in front of a magnificent street corner filled with statues and a fountain.

Take within the View from Quattro Canti

Palermo’s most well-known intersection, named after its 4 corners, is positioned at Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda. This space was constructed within the Baroque fashion between 1608 and 1620, at a time when Palermo was beneath Spanish rule.

Here the intricate 4 corners divide 4 conventional Palermo neighborhoods — La Loggia to the northeast, Kalsa to the southeast, Albergheria to the southwest, and Seralcadio/Capo to the northwest.

Additionally, every nook has art work dedicated to one of many Spanish Kings of Sicily, in addition to its patron saint and fountain depicting one of many 4 seasons.

This intersection is a good spot for images and capturing some actually Palermitan avenue scenes!

A hand holding an espresso martini in front of a rooftop view of a white and yellow church on a piazza, blue sky behind it.

Have Cocktails on Top of La Rinascente

La Rinascente is an upscale division retailer in downtown Palermo, positioned proper on Piazza San Domenico. It’s price a pop in to see what’s on the market — I ended up shopping for a coat and obtained a 20% low cost only for signing up for his or her e-mail record — however the true attraction is the roof.

There is a rooftop restaurant with an exquisite view over the piazza beneath, and catches all of the sunshine. We requested for espresso and so they solely serve espresso downstairs — so we requested for espresso martinis. What an ideal loophole!

I can’t converse to the restaurant, but it surely makes an awesome place to go for a break from vacationer points of interest the place you’ll be able to get pleasure from a stupendous view.

And should you’re in search of cocktail bars at evening, there are heaps in Palermo’s metropolis heart. We significantly cherished one known as Terzo Tempo.

A sand-colored theater with big Greek columns and a staircase in front. A horse-drawn carriage is on the road in front of it.

Teatro Massimo

Palermo’s most well-known theater, Teatro Massimo, is the biggest opera home in Italy and a serious landmark in popular culture. Have you seen The Godfather: Part III? A sure very well-known and tragic scene was shot on the steps of the opera home. (No, I can’t spoil a 30+ year-old movie.)

It’s an extremely grand constructing, and a guided tour of the theater is likely one of the hottest issues to do in Palermo. Would you relatively see an opera? Wonderful. You can get opera tickets in Palermo for a lot lower than what you’d pay in Florence or Milan.

(While a scene occurred inside Teatro Massimo in HBO’s The White Lotus, it was truly filmed within the theater in Catania. Don’t anticipate it to look the identical!)

A sand-colored cathedral topped with a blue-green dome, with lots of crenellation on the outside and three big porticoes on the side.

Visit the Palermo Cathedral

Every Italian metropolis has its personal Duomo, or central cathedral, and in some ways it usually represents the town’s persona. The Cattedrale di Palermo actually does, with its wild mishmash of architectural kinds, representing its centuries of being conquered and reconquered.

The cathedral, unique constructed within the twelfth century, is one in every of Palermo’s many UNESCO World Heritage Sites described as Arab-Norman Palermo. In this cathedral you’ve influences from Muslim, Byzantine, Jewish, Latin, Lombard, and French cultures.

Interestingly, the cathedral of Palermo has a zodiac on its ground — uncommon in Italian cathedrals! And the spectacular structure of the surface options all the things from three-tiered porticoes to Baroque cupolas.

A Baroque fountain on an Italian piazza filled with lots of statues of muse-like women. In front of it some teenagers in winter coats take a selfie.

Fontana Pretoria

Close to Quattro Canti is the Fontana Pretoria, essentially the most spectacular fountain in a metropolis of spectacular fountains. This fountain was truly initially constructed in Florence and dropped at Palermo’s Piazza Pretoria in 1574 — a painstaking course of that concerned 644 items.

The fountain options the Twelve Olympians — the Greek gods who dwelled on Mount Olympus, together with Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Poseidon (who seems to be a ton like Florence’s notorious Neptune, doesn’t he?).

The sq. was as soon as known as the Square of Shame (Piazza della Vergogna) because of the many nude our bodies on the fountain.

A simple bakery with pastries in cases and a prominent crucifix on the wall. An older woman leans down closely to look at the pastries.

Have Pastries in a Monastery

Palermo is brimming with implausible bakeries and sweets outlets. But you’ll be able to’t high the environment of I Segreti del Chiostro, a bakery positioned inside Santa Caterina d’Alessandria Monastery, positioned very near Fontana Pretoria and Quattro Canti.

Walk in and head upstairs. It will possible be busy with a line, and also you’ll be given a quantity. (You would possibly wish to search for the interpretation of your quantity in Italian as a result of they are going to be studying it out loud.) When they name your quantity, you place your order and so they’ll offer you your pastries and a receipt to pay on the money register.

This bakery is crammed with scrumptious, luxurious pastries. Intricately embellished cassata, large cannoli the scale of your forearm, and dozens extra baked items you’ve by no means heard of. They’re all labeled with their identify and substances in each Italian and English, an enormous novelty in Sicily.

Once you’ve purchased your pastry and maybe an espresso or macchiato, head out to the courtyard to take a seat by the fountain and luxuriate in your afternoon deal with. You may tour the monastery should you’d like.

A beach in winter with big frothy waves and a kitesurfer surfing across them. Pastel-colored square beach buildings in the background.
Mondello Beach on a windy winter day

Visit Mondello Beach

Mondello Beach — Spiaggia Mondello — is a stupendous white sand seaside with unbelievably clear water, positioned inside Palermo’s metropolis limits. It’s a few 35-minute trip from central Palermo on the 806 bus.

The water right here is so turquoise in summer season, you gained’t imagine that is in the midst of a busy metropolis! In between your swimming and sunbathing, seize a granita or fritto misto at one of many close by eating places, and take a stroll across the neighborhood to benefit from the stunning villas.

Palermitans love the seaside, so anticipate Mondello to be tremendous crowded in the summertime months. That being mentioned, Sicilians have a tendency to go to the seaside throughout “proper” summer season — from mid-June by mid-September, though it’s nonetheless swimming climate nicely into October. Shoulder season seaside visits will be nice right here.

In the winter months, it will likely be simply you, the dog-walkers, and the kitesurfers.

A very small chapel. The top half of the walls is covered with intricate sculpture work of angels and demons, all in white stucco.

Oratorio del SS Rosario in Santa Cita

In addition to its many Baroque church buildings, Palermo is crammed with small oratories which have their very own artworks. One undoubtedly price testing is Oratorio del SS Rosario, which is uniquely carved from white stucco.

Palermitan Giacomo Serpotta sculpted this room, and the outcomes actually take your breath away. Angels and cherubs fly on excessive; the condemned and war-stricken undergo beneath. There are partitions dedicated to the Joyful Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, and Glorious Mysteries.

This place was featured on the BBC’s collection Sicily Unpacked, however I don’t usually see it talked about in Palermo journey guides. It’s a disgrace; it’s a extremely cool place that deserves extra visits.

Another close by oratorio price visiting is Oratorio del SS Rosario in San Domenico, simply down the road and behind the cathedral of San Domenico.

A three-story gate. The bottom is all stone blocks and has a narrow opening, but the top has a balcony, a mosaic roof, and intricately cut porticoes.

Porta Nuova

You’ll see the Porta Nuova proper across the nook from the Royal Palace, a brief distance from the Duomo. This was the unique metropolis gate resulting in Cassaro, the oldest avenue in Palermo, and was constructed within the sixteenth century.

You can’t go up the gate, but it surely’s a stunning spot to seize a fast picture when visiting the UNESCO-listed church buildings of Palermo.

A 30-something man sitting on a chair, repairing a puppet that looks like a knight in armor. A tall puppet is standing behind him, a bit creepily to be honest.

See a Sicilian Puppet Show

Puppet exhibits have lengthy been a cultural custom in Sicily usually and Palermo particularly. Palermo’s Opera dei Pupi, a conventional puppet theater, was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity record in 2001.

These puppet exhibits started within the late nineteenth century, depicting medieval chivalric romances and Renaissance poems. Today they’re nonetheless occurring, although the exhibits are sometimes simplified for a extra international viewers.

Take a have a look at the Opera dei Pupi web site to see what exhibits are on throughout your go to. And should you’d relatively simply get a fast glimpse of the puppets, take a stroll down Via Bara All’Olivella, near Teatro Massimo, to see the puppet-makers in motion.

A square stone church topped with unusual red domes.

Visit San Cataldo and La Martorana

In Palermo’s metropolis heart, you’ll discover two distinctive church buildings facet by facet: the Church of San Cataldo and La Martorana (also referred to as Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio). Both are price visiting.

La Martorana is one other visible stunner with sensational Byzantine mosaics on the partitions and an intricate Baroque marble altar.

San Cataldo is topped with crimson domes, a remnant of the Arab affect right here. The inside feels extra historic by comparability — plain stone partitions, although a mosaic on the ground.

People sitting at street side restaurants, drinking spritzes and eating fried food.

Enjoy Nightlife in La Vucciria

La Vucciria was as soon as one of the vital well-known markets in Palermo, immortalized within the La Vucciria portray by Renata Guttuso. Over time, the market stalls have turn out to be fewer and fewer, however that’s okay — the market has reinvented itself.

These days, La Vucciria has turn out to be extra of a vacation spot for nightlife. When aperitivo hour hits, head to Via Maccherronai, the slim avenue connecting La Vucciria and Piazza San Domenico, and select one of many institutions for some drinks and meals.

Here you’ll be able to seize a desk exterior, order a super-strong spritz, and order a plate or two of fried Sicilian specialties — pannele, crocche, perhaps some fried or grilled squid. This isn’t going to be your full dinner — but it surely’s the right place to get your night began in Palermo!

A courtyard in winter with elegant stone columns circling a green courtyard with trees.

San Giovanni degli Eremiti

Another of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Arab Norman Palermo websites is San Giovanni degli Eremiti (St. John of the Hermits), an exquisite spot to go to a stone’s throw from the Norman Palace and Palatine Chapel. You’ll discover the crimson domes topping this monastic church earlier than you stroll in.

This place looks like a secret backyard in the midst of the town, from the second you stroll in and are surrounded by lush greenery. Head upstairs to see the chapel and the courtyard. There can be an Arab cistern on web site.

The courtyard, for my part, is the spotlight of this place, surrounded by columns and feeling because it it’s caught in time.

A row of creepy skeletons wearing clothes and lined up standing in the catacombs.
The creepy, extremely nicely preserved Capuchin Catacombs, by way of Shutterstock.

Visit the Capuchin Monastery Catacombs

You might need heard of Rome’s catacombs, however how about Palermo’s? The Capuchin Catacombs are residence to greater than 8,000 our bodies and it’s simply one of the vital macabre issues to do in Palermo.

You would possibly consider catacombs as being a spot for the poor, however this ultimate resting place was truly one thing restricted to Palermo’s most privileged from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The mummification course of was groundbreaking on the time, and to at the present time you’ll be able to see the human-ness of those our bodies of their expressions.

Please know that there are mummified youngsters on show in these catacombs. If seeing that might upset you, don’t go. I selected to not go as a result of I used to be devastated by the kid mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico. Additionally, pictures aren’t permitted right here.

A church atop a hill overlooking a city surrounded by mountains.
The view atop Mount Pellegrino, by way of Shutterstock.

Monte Pellegrino

Looking for a simple escape into nature? Head to Monte Pellegrino. This mountain (actually, extra of a giant hill) overlooks Mondello Beach and the Tyrrhenian Sea. It’s lined with mountaineering trails and implausible scenic overlooks. Not dangerous for nonetheless being throughout the metropolis of Palermo!

On the mountain is Sanctuaria di Santa Rosalia, a church constructed instantly into the rocky mountainside, full with a cave-like chapel.

You can take the 812 bus from Politeama to the highest of Monte Pellegrino, or ebook a motorbike tour with an area triathlete.

A church with tall columns along the aisles, a wooden ceilings, and gold mosaics on all the walls.

Visit Monreale and Its Cathedral

Monreale is a city positioned up within the hills south of Palermo. (You can anticipate it to be a number of levels cooler right here, so it’s an awesome place to go to on a sizzling day!)

The Cathedral of Monreale is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is thought for showcasing the convergence between Norman and Byzantine structure. The ceiling and partitions are studded with beautiful mosaics with a lot gold.

The golden inside evokes the Byzantine chapels of Central and Eastern Europe, whereas the cloister seems to be like one thing straight out of Andalusia or North Africa. That’s Sicily for you!

To get to Monreale, take the 389P bus from Piazza Independienza. It’s the final cease. Be positive to take a look at Google Maps intently — many “alternative” bus routes they provide embody a “12 minute cycling” addition to the itinerary.

A pastry case filled with dozens of different brightly colored Sicilian pastries.
The pastry case at Antica Caffe Biondo. Get the inexperienced factor — cassata!

Eat All the Sicilian Pastries

I’ve been to all 20 areas of Italy, and I feel that Sicily has the very best pastries and desserts in your entire nation. That’s not a small declare.

Sure, you’ve heard of cannoli earlier than (singular: cannolo), and also you’ll discover them throughout Sicily. Those beautiful fried pastry shells crammed with ricotta cream and chocolate chips, topped with candied fruit — they’re implausible! (And addicting.)

But don’t cease at cannoli. Two different desserts it’s best to attempt are cassata (a Sicilian cake with shiny inexperienced marzipan wrapping round layers of sponge cake and cream) and torta setteveli (a seven-layer cake standard in Palermo that layers chocolate and hazelnuts and was featured as a technical problem on The Great British Bake-Off).

Beyond that? Try something that appears good! One evening I ended up with a molten lemon cake that was nothing wanting transcendent.

One good factor is that many bakeries have mini pastries together with regular-sized ones — good for simply having slightly little bit of one thing candy, or attempting a number of completely different goodies.

Two of the extra high-end bakeries in Palermo that I particularly loved are Antico Caffe Biondo (they’d the BEST cassata!) and Antico Caffe Spinnato.

A long-distance view over the hills surrounding Palermo, covered with homes, mountains and ocean in the distance.

Day Trips from Palermo

My high recommendation is to be sensible about what you’ll be able to see with a day journey from Palermo. No, you’ll be able to’t day journey to Catania or Siracusa or the Aeolian Islands; it’s too far. Stick to the encompassing space — which is all Western Sicily. And follow a 2.5-hour drive.

That being mentioned, there are such a lot of cool day journeys from Palermo that you may make with an inexpensive journey from the town, whether or not you desire a seaside resort, hill cities, Greek ruins, or a stupendous place to hike.

Here are a few of the greatest locations to go to on a day journey from Palermo.

A gorgeous small town by the sea with sand-colored buildings, a few church towers, and rising cliffs behind it.
Recognize this view from The White Lotus? Via Shutterstock.

Cefalù

Cefalù is arguably essentially the most well-known seaside village in Sicily. And you will have seen it already — whereas The White Lotus‘s Sicilian resort was positioned in Taormina, the entire seaside scenes had been truly shot in Cefalù!

You can perform a little right here — lie on the seaside and go for a swim — or do a bit extra. The outdated city is an exceedingly photogenic place to wander; it’s also possible to hike up La Rocca for views over the panorama.

Cefalù, like most Sicilian resort cities, is hopping throughout excessive season and very quiet exterior this time interval. I personally wouldn’t go to Cefalù sooner than May or later than October; an excessive amount of is shut down.

Cefalù is a one-hour journey from Palermo by practice, or you’ll be able to be part of a tour from Palermo. Many Cefalù excursions from Palermo additionally embody Castelbuono, a stupendous hill city shut by.

A couple standing on a stone fortress in Erice, looking over hills leading to the ocean.
Incredible views from the fortress in Erice!

Erice

Think the one Italian hill cities are in Tuscany? Think once more! Erice is a fabulous hill city and makes an ideal day journey from Palermo.

It’s an extended, switchbacky journey as much as Erice, and when you’re on the high close to the fortress, you’ll be rewarded with beautiful views over the countryside. The streets are steep and superbly cobblestoned. It feels so completely different from the coastal components of Sicily, and particularly Palermo!

Keep a watch out for the very pleasant cats of Erice, a few of whom would possibly be part of you for a stroll by the city.

Erice is a 1 hour and 15 minute drive from Palermo, or you’ll be able to take the cable automotive from Trapani (seasonal). You may ebook a tour from Palermo, like this tour to Erice, Segesta, and the Salt Pans of Trapani, which covers a variety of cool spots in a single day.

The view from a stone amphitheater perched high on a hill, hills and the ocean in the distance.
I can’t consider a Greek theater with a greater view than this.

Segesta

If you’re a fan of ruins, you’ll wish to go to the traditional metropolis of Segesta whereas in Palermo. These Greek ruins are one of the vital necessary websites in Sicily, and so they’re additionally superbly preserved and enjoyable to go to. I’m not an enormous ruins particular person, however I cherished Segesta.

There are two principal websites right here: a temple and a theater. The theater has spectacular views throughout the hilly Sicilian countryside, all the way in which to the Gulf of Castellamare.

The temple is straightforward to go to from the parking zone, however the theater is positioned a 1.3-km journey up a steep hill. They have a shuttle bus going up and down the hill. (I selected the stroll earlier than realizing it was fully uphill. Still feeling it in my butt right now!)

Segesta is in a distant location with out public transportation entry, so your greatest guess is to drive (45 minutes) or ebook a tour. You can ebook this tour to Erice, Segesta, and the Salt Pans of Trapani.

Keep in thoughts that the UNESCO-listed ruins of Agrigento are a two-hour drive away, so Segesta is way nearer.

A market in Palermo, with lots of street art on the buildings and people eating at tables.

Is Palermo Safe?

You is perhaps questioning whether or not Palermo is protected to go to. Unfortunately, folks usually assume that Palermo is an unsafe metropolis, however that is SO removed from the reality.

Palermo is simply as protected to go to as any main metropolis in Italy (and maybe even safer than cities like Paris and Barcelona, the place vacationers are constantly focused by pickpockets and rip-off artists).

Both Sicily and Palermo have a historical past with the mafia, which casts an extended shadow (and the Godfather motion pictures undoubtedly don’t assist), however locals are by no means focused by the mafia. And the mafia usually has far much less affect right here than it did 30 years in the past.

Don’t joke in regards to the mafia once you’re in Sicily. It’s not humorous right here. Our Streaty meals tour information Angelo, who is similar age as me, advised us about how traumatizing it was when two judges had been murdered in Palermo in 1992. He was eight. Imagine if that occurred in your personal group once you had been a baby.

Keep in thoughts that issues have modified lately — each in Sicily usually and Palermo particularly. In Anthony Bourdain’s episode of Parts Unknown, he talks about AddioPizzo, a corporation that helps Palermo eating places that refuse to pay kickbacks to the mafia.

I requested locals about this, and so they advised me that the mafia virtually by no means seems to be for kickbacks from Palermo eating places anymore. The Parts Unknown episode aired in 2013. That’s the distinction a decade could make.

To study extra about this, you’ll be able to take an Anti-Mafia Tour in Palermo.

In brief, keep protected in Palermo the way in which you do in every other metropolis. Keep a watch in your belongings. Only take out the amount of money you want for the day. Don’t get too drunk. If you’re not snug strolling at evening, take an Uber.

Neighborhood-wise, I’d suggest being further cautious across the practice station at evening. (Which is just about commonplace for any European metropolis.) And as you’ll be able to see additional beneath, I like to recommend staying within the Politeama neighborhood.

Read More: Top 10 Travel Safety Tips for Women

People walking on the sidewalk in Palermo as a bus drives by.

How to Get to Palermo, Italy

If you’re flying into Italy, Palermo Airport has nonstop flights from locations throughout Italy, in addition to some in different European international locations.

The greatest solution to get from the airport into Palermo is to leap in one of many shared taxis, which price eight EUR ($9 USD) per particular person. However, I don’t suggest taking the shared taxi again — we needed to drive everywhere in the metropolis selecting different folks up, and it might have been nerve-wracking if we had been late for a flight!

I like to recommend renting a automotive should you’re exploring Sicily in depth, however should you don’t have a automotive, practice is greatest. Palermo is one hour from Cefalù and three hours from Catania or Messina. Buses go to different native locations.

As for getting round Palermo, there’s a community of buses that run across the metropolis and Google Maps is sweet for determining the schedules. You should purchase bus tickets at a Tabbachi (search for the large T on shops) — sadly, you’ll be able to’t purchase transit tickets by way of an app simply but.

Uber is offered in Palermo, and there are taxis as nicely.

People walking on a pedestrianized street in Palermo, in front of a green tree cut into the shape of a cube.
Winter sunshine is sweet in Palermo!

Best Time to Visit Palermo, Italy

Palermo is commonly marketed as a year-round vacation spot, and I get it. Summers are scorching and wild, whereas winters are sunny and delicate. (Then once more, my current February go to was marred by a chilly spell, a reminder that Sicilian buildings are poorly heated.)

So sure — you’ll be able to go to Palermo year-round, however you would possibly wish to be ready for a colder winter than you would possibly anticipate. I wore a thick sweater on daily basis!

The very best time to go to Palermo, and Sicily? Go for May or September. These months convey heat, summer-like warmth with out the crush of the summer season crowds. Spring and fall usually are fabulous instances to go to Sicily.

A tall skinny building on a narrow corner of Palermo.

Where to Stay in Palermo, Italy

The greatest neighborhood to remain in Palermo is Politeama. This neighborhood is the arguably the very best neighborhood within the metropolis, with easy accessibility to designer outlets and good eating places — but it surely doesn’t really feel snobby in any respect. Quite the other, truly.

Palermo is a really reasonably priced metropolis, and splurging on the nicest neighborhood doesn’t even really feel like splurging.

The Politeama neighborhood is near the motion however not within the heart of the motion, which I actually like. It’s walkable to the town heart and all of the sights. And it’s near a number of bus routes.

I stayed in this one-bedroom Palermo condo throughout my go to and actually loved it. An incredible house, a superb location, a low value. Stay there should you’d like!

Top-Rated Hotels in Palermo (all in Politeama)

  • Best Luxury Hotel in Palermo: Grand Hotel Wagner (Charlie did an inspection of this place and it’s RIDICULOUSLY opulent)
  • Best Mid-Range Hotel in Palermo: Hotel Politeama (beautiful views)
  • Best Budget Hotel in Palermo: Castelnuovo Rooms (shared bogs will prevent a TON)

Find offers on Palermo accommodations right here.

A yellow, orange, and green villa with a little turret on top, surrounded by palm trees.

Travel Insurance for Italy

One final observe — it’s completely very important to have journey insurance coverage earlier than touring to Palermo, or anyplace in Sicily. If you get sick or injured in your journey, should you get robbed, or even when it’s a must to be flown residence for extra care, journey insurance coverage will shield you from monetary destroy. I’ve used World Nomads for journeys to Italy.

Travel insurance coverage will provide help to in your hour of want should you come down with appendicitis in Palermo, or journey and break an ankle whereas climbing into the Cappella Palatina, or in case your flights get canceled, you may get lodging and new flights paid for.

As all the time, remember to learn your coverage rigorously and ensure it’s a match for you. See what World Nomads covers right here.

A narrow street in Palermo with flags and hand-lettered signs hanging between the buildings.

Is Palermo Worth It?

Hell sure, Palermo is totally price it! In my opinion, Palermo doesn’t get the eye it deserves. So many individuals go to for a day and think about Palermo checked off.

But this can be a metropolis that very a lot deserves your time. I do know I’ll be spending much more time in Palermo in my future!

More on Sicily:

Cool Places in Southern Italy:

Cool Places in Northern Italy:

Planning a Trip to Italy:

Have you been to Palermo? What do you suggest? Share away!

23 Fabulous Things to Do in Palermo, Italy, Sicily’s Sizzling Capital

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