Loop from Palermo

01 Church

Palermo Cathedral

Cattedrale di Palermo

Built in 1185 by Archbishop Gualtiero Offamilio, the cathedral has kept its Norman walls beneath a neoclassical dome added in the 18th century. In the right transept, the silver urn of St Rosalia awaits 15 July, when the city carries it in procession. You'll also find the porphyry sarcophagi in which Frederick II and Norman kings lie.

02 Castle

Palazzo dei Normanni

You are entering what is held to be the oldest royal residence in Europe, today the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. Its foundations bear Punic traces, and Arab emirs, Norman kings and Emperor Frederick II followed one another here. On the first floor, the Palatine Chapel awaits, lined with gold-ground mosaics.

03 Experiences

Ballarò

Mentioned as early as the 10th century by the traveller Ibn Hawqal, Ballarò is one of Palermo's historic markets. Between the stalls, try panelle, crocchè or a pani câ mèusa, the offal sandwich. Since the 1980s, the arrival of immigrants has deeply shaped the market, where traders still cry out their wares.

04 Church

Church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio

Chiesa della Martorana

Enter through the 12th-century bell tower, pierced with arcades and three storeys of twin windows, into the church founded in 1143 by George of Antioch, admiral to Roger II. Beneath the vaults, gold-ground Byzantine mosaics show, among other things, Roger II crowned by Christ. The liturgy here still follows the Byzantine rite of the Albanians of Sicily.

05 Church

Monreale Cathedral

Duomo di Monreale

Step into a church where gold streams down the walls: Byzantine mosaics cover the nave all the way to the apse, dominated by an immense Christ Pantocrator. William II, King of Sicily, launched the work in 1172 and brought in Greek mosaicists. Since 2015, the building has been a World Heritage Site, on the Arab-Norman route.

06 Castle

Villa Palagonia

In Bagheria, this Baroque villa begun in 1715 for the Prince of Palagonia owes its nickname, the villa of monsters, to its grotesque statues. Take a close look at these creatures commissioned by the prince's grandson; 62 of some 200 survive. Goethe, who visited in 1787, was struck enough to slip its monsters into his Faust.

07 Archaeology

Soluntum

Solunto

Climb the stepped streets of Solunto, a Greek city laid out on a grid on Monte Catalfano, facing Capo Zafferano. Reorganised in the 4th century BC, it passed to the Romans in 254 BC, then declined. The Via dell'Agora, partly paved with square bricks, leads towards the old public quarter, with the sea below.

08 Church

Cefalù Cathedral

Duomo di Cefalù

Cross the vast terraced forecourt to the two Norman towers flanking the cathedral founded in 1131 by Roger II. At the far end of the apse, a mosaic Christ Pantocrator, whose first phase was completed in 1148, presides over a nave lined with ancient pink granite columns. The neighbouring cloister lines up its carved capitals on paired colonnettes.

09 Archaeology

Teatro Greco di Tindari

Built at the end of the 4th century BC, this Greek theatre sets its tiers into the hollow of the hill, for around 3,000 spectators. Spot the arch restored in 1939, the only standing element of the stage built by the Romans, who turned the orchestra into an arena. Since 1956 a festival of dance, music and theatre has brought it to life, facing the sea.

10 Museum

Ancient theatre of Taormina

Teatro antico di Taormina

Built in the 3rd century BC and enlarged by the Romans, this theatre carved into the rock measures 109 metres across. Through the gap in its stage wall, the Ionian Sea and Etna form a backdrop that Goethe admired in 1787. Climb to the top of the cavea to take in stage, coast and volcano at a single glance.

11 Gorge

Gole dell'Alcantara

The Alcantara river has carved a narrow gorge into a lava flow from the slopes of Etna. Study its basalt walls, split into five- or six-sided prisms, now like a harp, now like a fan. In places the walls rise to 25 metres and leave only two metres of passage.

12 Nature

Hundred Horse Chestnut

Castagno dei Cento Cavalli

On the eastern slope of Etna, the Castagno dei Cento Cavalli spreads three trunks whose age was estimated in 2022 at 2200 years. Take in the span of its branches, under which, legend has it, a queen and a hundred horsemen sheltered from a storm. A deed of 1745 already protected it, one of the first of its kind in Italy.

13 Mountain

Monti Silvestri

Born of the 1892 eruption, which lasted 173 days, these two cones bear the name of the volcanologist Orazio Silvestri. Stop where the road to Rifugio Sapienza slips between the two craters, and imagine the lava flowing some 7 kilometres down towards Nicolosi. At around 1,900 metres, they are among the most visited cones on Etna.

14 Church

Catania Cathedral

Cattedrale di Sant'Agata

Look at the east end of the cathedral for its three Norman apses in blocks of lava, remains of the fortress church built between 1086 and 1094. The earthquake of 1693 left only this east end and the façade standing, and the Baroque rebuilding then enveloped them. The relics of St Agatha, carried off to Constantinople in 1040, were brought back here in 1126.

15 Archaeology

Greek Theatre of Syracuse

Teatro greco di Siracusa

Cut into the side of the Colle Temenite in the 5th century BC, its tiers form a semicircle 138.60 metres across. Look for the names of Hieron II and his wife, Queen Philistis, carved into the stone. Higher up, a terrace hewn from the rock guards the grotto of the nymphaeum, once fed by a Greek aqueduct.

16 Island

Ortygia

Isola di Ortigia

Lean over the Fountain of Arethusa, where papyrus grows in the fresh water that springs up at the sea's edge. On this islet of around 1 km², Corinthian settlers led by Archias founded Syracuse in the 8th century BC. On Piazza del Duomo, Doric columns from a Greek temple still support the walls of the cathedral.

17 Church

Noto Cathedral

Cattedrale di Noto

Look up at San Nicolò, at the top of its broad staircase: on 13 March 1996, a pillar gave way and its dome collapsed along with the naves. Craftsmen trained for the occasion rebuilt it using limestone, timber roof frames and eighteenth-century techniques. Reopened for worship in June 2007, it bears an almost identical dome.

18 Village

Scicli

Head down into the hollow where three gorges carved into the Hyblaean plateau meet. Rebuilt in Baroque style after the 1693 earthquake, the town has been a World Heritage Site since 2002, along with the Val di Noto. Above the churches and palaces, the cliffs are still riddled with the caves of ancient rock dwellings.

19 Church

San Giorgio Cathedral, Modica

Duomo di San Giorgio

Admire the three-tiered tower façade of San Giorgio, mother church of Modica and an emblem of Sicilian Baroque. Rebuilt after the earthquakes of 1542, 1613 and 1693, the church only received its spire in 1841-1842. Long credited to Rosario Gagliardi, its design is attributed by some historians to Paolo Labisi.

20 Heritage

Ragusa Ibla

Rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, Ibla spreads a Baroque town across its hill that brings together fourteen of the eighteen Ragusa monuments on the World Heritage List. More than fifty churches are packed in here, including the Duomo di San Giorgio designed by Rosario Gagliardi. End your walk at the eastern tip of the district, in the paths of the Giardino Ibleo.

21 Heritage

Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte

Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte

Climb 142 steps, each riser decorated since 1954 with a painted majolica tile, from Arab motifs to 20th-century designs. Laid out in 1606, the staircase links the old town to the upper districts. On 24 and 25 July, for the feast of Saint James, four thousand open-flame lamps trace a carpet of fire across it.

22 Museum

Villa Romana del Casale

Villa del Casale

Near Piazza Armerina, this 4th-century residence is more palace than villa; its mosaics indicate the use of each room. Excavated from 1950 by Gino Vinicio Gentili, it also shows athletes in two-piece outfits. Follow step by step the long corridor of the Great Hunt, unrolled like a frieze.

23 Archaeology

Valle dei Templi

Founded in 581 BC by settlers from Gela and Rhodes, Akragas raised its Doric temples on a ridge facing the sea after its victory at Himera. The Temple of Concordia keeps its columns, while the Olympieion, never finished, lies in colossal blocks. Walk from one sanctuary to the next along the ridge, among the olive trees.

24 Coast

Scala dei Turchi

Before you rises a cliff of pure white marl, carved into broad steps that descend towards the sea. Andrea Camilleri, who spent his boyhood summers here, slipped it into the adventures of Inspector Montalbano. The fragile rock has been crumbling since 2017, and access, now paid, is managed by the Valley of the Temples park.

25 Archaeology

Heraclea Minoa

Eraclea Minoa

Look at the white cliffs of Capo Bianco plunging into the sea: on this headland stood a Greek city. An outpost of Selinunte founded in the mid-sixth century BC, it was abandoned at the beginning of the Christian era. Its double name blends two legends, that of Heracles and that of Minos in pursuit of Daedalus.

26 Museum

Selinunte

Walk among the fallen columns of Selinunte, the westernmost Greek colony in Sicily, founded according to Diodorus in 650 BC. In 409 BC, Carthage took it after a nine-day siege, and an earthquake later toppled its temples. The wild celery that gave it its name still grows between the blocks.

27 Archaeology

Lilibeo

Walk through the Capo Boeo park, 28 hectares of greenery in Marsala, where walls and terracotta sherds break the surface. Founded in 397 BC by survivors from Motya, Lilybaeum resisted the Romans and had Cicero as its quaestor. In the Baglio Anselmi museum stands a marble Venus Callipyge unearthed at Lilybaeum.

28 Nature park

Salt pans of Trapani and Paceco

Riserva naturale orientata Saline di Trapani e Paceco

Between Trapani and Paceco, nearly 1,000 hectares of salt pans, recorded as early as the Norman era by al-Idrisi, have formed a WWF-managed reserve since 1995. Windmills, mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries, stand out against this chequerboard of water. Flamingos stop here on migration, close to the heaps of salt.

29 Village

Erice

Climb up to 751 metres to find Erice, a city of the Elymians where the Romans worshipped Venus Erycina at the top of the mountain. Hamilcar Barca fortified it during the First Punic War, and from 1167 to 1934 it was called Monte San Giuliano. From its heights, the view plunges down to Trapani and the sea.

30 Museum

Segesta

On Monte Barbaro, the Elymian city of Segesta left a solitary Doric temple and a Hellenistic theatre partly cut into the rock. Climb up to the tiers, from where the view sweeps towards the Gulf of Castellammare. Goethe stopped before the temple on 20 April 1787 and described it in his Italian Journey.

31 Heritage

Tonnara di Scopello

Facing the faraglioni of Scopello, this tonnara, one of the oldest in Sicily, caught tuna until the second half of the 20th century. The Sanclemente enlarged it, the Florio became co-owners, and two towers watch over it from the rocks. Look at it from the heights, where buildings and rock stacks fit into a single view.