Italy
Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Palermo: Arab-Norman Palaces, Street Markets and Sicilian Street Food
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The street food of Palermo is the most direct entry into the city and the most useful way to spend the first hour after the ship docks. The Ballarò market, the largest and oldest of the city's three main markets, runs every morning in the Albergheria quarter and sells produce, fish, meat, and prepared food from stalls that have occupied the same streets since the Arab period. Panelle (chickpea fritters pressed and fried in slabs) are the market's signature snack, served in a sesame roll; arancini (rice balls stuffed with ragù, cheese, or vegetables, fried to a crisp) are sold at most fritti counters. Pani ca meusa — a spleen sandwich with fresh ricotta and aged caciocavallo, served from carts near the Vucciria market — is the most confronting of Palermo's street foods and a reliable conversation piece regardless of whether it is eaten.
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The Cappella Palatina inside the Norman Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) is one of the most significant medieval interiors in Europe: a private royal chapel built for Roger II between 1130 and 1140 that combines Islamic muqarnas ceiling decorations, Byzantine mosaic programs covering every wall surface, and Norman structural forms in a single interior that demonstrates the cultural synthesis of Norman Sicily as no textbook can. The mosaics — gold-background biblical scenes executed by craftsmen from Byzantium — are in exceptional condition. The palace is also the seat of the Sicilian regional assembly; the chapel is open to visitors on a fixed schedule.
Monreale, 8 kilometres southwest of central Palermo in the hills above the city, has a twelfth-century cathedral whose interior mosaic program covers 6,340 square metres — the largest Byzantine mosaic cycle outside Hagia Sophia. The mosaics illustrate the Old and New Testaments in continuous narrative across the nave, apse, and transept walls, with a gold-background Christ Pantocrator dominating the apse. The attached Benedictine cloister is an Arab-Norman-influenced garden of 228 paired columns with carved capitals. The journey takes 30 minutes by taxi or bus, and the combination of the cathedral and cloister requires 90 minutes minimum.
The Duomo di Palermo, on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, has an exterior that is one of the most architecturally complex in Italy: successive campaigns of construction and alteration by Arab, Norman, Gothic, and Baroque builders over seven centuries produced a structure that defies easy categorization and rewards close examination of its different sections and periods. The interior was extensively remodeled in the eighteenth century and is less interesting than the exterior; the royal tombs in the left transept include the porphyry sarcophagus of Roger II and the tomb of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The treasury museum includes the crown of Constance of Aragon, found in her tomb in 1491.
Good to know
Overview
Ships berth alongside at one of two cruise terminals, Vittorio Veneto or Sammuzzo, close to the city's main sights.
- Check which terminal your ship is using before you go ashore, and give a taxi driver the terminal's name for the ride back.
- Ships tie up at the quay at both terminals, so there is no tender.
- The old center is roughly 15 to 20 minutes on foot from the port gates.
Where to Eat
Palermo's best-known dishes are street food, sold from stalls and counters.
- An arancina is a deep-fried rice ball, most often filled with meat ragù. Palermo uses the feminine word; eastern Sicily says arancino.
- Pane e panelle is a sesame roll filled with chickpea-flour fritters and served with a slice of lemon.
- Pani ca meusa is a soft sesame roll of chopped veal spleen and lung, boiled and then fried in lard. With cheese added it is called "maritatu."
- Sfincione is Palermo's thick pizza, topped with tomato, onions, anchovies and caciocavallo cheese.
- Cannoli are pastry tubes filled with sweetened ricotta.
Culture and Sights
Nine Arab-Norman buildings in and around Palermo joined UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2015.
- The Cappella Palatina, inside the Palazzo Reale, was commissioned by King Roger II in 1132 and pairs Byzantine mosaics with a muqarnas ceiling in the Islamic style.
- The Palazzo Reale is also the seat of the Sicilian parliament and can close without notice. Last entry is at 4:30 pm, or 12:30 pm on Sundays and holidays.
- Palermo Cathedral, founded in 1185, holds the tombs of Roger II and Emperor Frederick II.
- The Teatro Massimo, opened in 1897, is the largest opera house in Italy. Guided tours run daily from 9:30 am, with the last at 6:20 pm.
- Monreale Cathedral, about 4 miles (7 km) inland, was begun in 1174 and is covered inside with glass mosaics.
What to Buy
Palermo's historic street markets, Ballarò, the Capo and the Vucciria, are known for their fruit, vegetable and fish stalls.
- Piazza Marina has an antiques market on Sunday mornings, with vintage clothes and books among the stalls.
- Frutta martorana, marzipan shaped and colored to look like fruit, is said to have begun at Palermo's Martorana convent.
- UK government travel advice for Italy warns of bag-snatching and pickpocketing in city centers and at major sights. Do not carry all your valuables in one bag or pocket.
Getting Around
The old center is compact and best covered on foot.
- An AMAT bus or tram ticket costs €1.40 and is valid for 90 minutes, or €1.80 bought from the driver (checked October 2026). Check before you go.
- Stamp a bus ticket in the machine as soon as you board. UK government travel advice for Italy notes that inspectors fine passengers on the spot for an unvalidated ticket.
- UK government travel advice for Italy is to use only licensed taxis, which have a taxi sign on the roof and a company name and number on the side.
Families and Children
Puppets, a botanical garden and a beach give children a break from churches and palaces.
- The Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum, near Piazza Marina, holds more than 5,000 puppets. It closes at 2 pm on Sunday and Monday and at 6 pm on other days.
- Sicilian puppet theater, the opera dei pupi, acts out tales of medieval knights and is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.
- The Orto Botanico, Palermo's botanical garden, opened in 1795 and covers about 25 acres (10 hectares).
- The Capuchin Catacombs line their corridors with about 1,250 mummified bodies, some of them children, so decide beforehand whether that suits your child. They close for lunch from 12:30 pm to 3 pm.
History
Phoenicians founded Palermo in 734 BC, and Arabs and Normans each made it their capital.
- Arab rule lasted from 831 to 1072, and under it Palermo replaced Syracuse as the capital of Sicily.
- The Normans took the city in 1072 after a five-month siege, and in 1130 it became the capital of Roger II's new Kingdom of Sicily.
- The Sicilian Vespers, a revolt against the French-born king Charles of Anjou, began at a church just outside Palermo on Easter Monday 1282.
- Garibaldi's volunteers fought their way into Palermo on May 27, 1860, and the Bourbon garrison capitulated on June 6.
- In 1992 the Mafia killed the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino within weeks of each other, and Palermo's airport now carries their names.
Beaches
Mondello, Palermo's main beach resort, is at the far northern end of the city, a bus or taxi ride from the port.
- Mondello is a sandy bay between two hills, Monte Gallo and Monte Pellegrino.
- The bathing season at Mondello runs from May to September, when the sand is set out with sunbeds, umbrellas and wooden cabins.
- AMAT's seasonal 806 bus links the city with Mondello. Check the current route and timetable before you rely on it.
- UK government travel advice for Italy says a red flag on a beach means you must not enter the water.
Tipping and Currency
Tipping in Italy is not compulsory, and Italy's national tourist board puts the custom at close to 10 percent of the bill when you are happy with the service.
- Restaurant bills often carry "pane e coperto," a bread and cover charge. It is not a tip.
- Prices are in euros. Ask for the receipt when you pay and keep it, because Italian businesses are obliged to issue one.
- Prices on menus and price lists are fixed, and haggling is not the custom outside markets and fairs.
Accessibility
The Teatro Massimo's main entrance has 31 steps, and its step-free entrance is gate 4, to the left, with lifts to the stalls and the boxes.
- Ask your ship whether the gangway will be step-free in Palermo.
- Via Maqueda is closed to cars by day between Piazza Verdi and the Quattro Canti.
- The Palazzo Reale asks visitors with specific access needs to contact it before they arrive.
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