Mediterranean city

It’s difficult to know where to start because Palermo is so variable. Different people will take away entirely different things. I liked the food, which is Italian with a difference – tiny deep-fried ravioli of chick-pea flour, or thin fried slices of beef stomach, served in rolls with lemon juice and salt for breakfast, pastas with tomato and fish sauces, and delicious local cakes and ice creams everywhere, from the most elegant patisserie to the station buffet. I liked the golden mosaics in the Norman churches, reminding us of the glamour of Byzantium, as the ruins of Istanbul never can. I liked the dusty and desiccated corpses strung up in the Capuchin catacombs, all dressed in their own moth-eaten clothes, like the props room of some forgotten horror movie. And everywhere in the old city and even more in the modern slums outside, the streets are garlanded (and sometimes painted) with the pink and black checkerboard colours of Palermo, with the whole city willing their team to get into series.

Quick Tips:

The entrance to the Palazzo dei Normanni is at the back, in Piazza Indipendenza. That’s about 10-minute walk from the front entrance. There’s almost always a queue to get in, maybe because there is no charge, and queue-jumping is rife, so get there early (in the right place) if you can.

There are professional pickpockets at work on the buses in Piazza Indipendenza. They press close as you get onto the bus and then slip off at once with anything they’ve managed to pick up before the bus leaves. They aren’t violent, just quick, so keep your hands on your valuables and you should be ok.

Best Way To Get Around:

Local buses are cheap enough, at 1 euro for up to two hours of travel, but without bus maps or timetables and with the constant congestion of Palermo traffic, it’s almost always faster to walk. As the bus stops are quite close together, you can always catch the bus later if one overtakes you. Monreale is about the only place within the city limits where a bus is necessary. There are regular, clearly signed buses and trains from the airport to the centre for about 5 euro a trip.

This is an old courtyard building on Via Roma, about five minutes walk from the main station. This is a respectable, three-star hotel; there’s a clanking lift up to reception, flowers, and carpets in the corridors, and odd items of furniture lying around to make the place look homelike. The reception was correct rather than friendly, but efficient and helpful.

My room was spacious, high ceilinged, with an enormous wrought-iron bed (with an unusually comfortable mattress) and appropriate furniture and fittings. The en suite bathroom was newly fitted, and had a hair-dryer and take-away shampoo, as well as big fresh fluffy towels. A breakfast of good coffee and fresh, tasty rolls and croissants is included in the overnight rate.

It’s not cheap at 56 euro for single occupancy, but if you’re arriving late by Ryanair, this would be a safe, sensible choice; it’s near the station, easy to find (the airport bus passes the front door), bookable (in English) by internet, and accepts credit cards. What more do you need for a short break near all the main sights?

This hotel is in the heart of the old Albergheria quarter about a 10-minute walk from the station. It’s officially in via Scarparelli, but as this name doesn’t appear anywhere in the street or on any town map, it’s rather academic – walk to the far end of the Ballero market and it’s on your left, just past the hotel sign fastened high on the wall. The narrow stairs up to the hotel, with their marble steps, vaulted roof, wrought iron details, and wall-lights, could have come straight out of a Gothic castle, but the hotel itself is brand new, barely a year old, inserted into the shell of the old building.

My single room looked rather like a student room in a hall of residence – pine-coloured bed, table, desk and wardrobe, low-maintenance polished conglomerate floor, clean en suite bathroom, and telephone, TV, and state-of-the-art air-conditioning. The hot water supply is eccentric and the only towels are those small tablecloths that the Italians seem to prefer, but apart from that, I was very comfortable and content. It was good value at 35 euro en suite or 30 euro without.

There’s a bright clean breakfast room, but I didn’t try it – every kind of local food is accessible in the market straight outside. It’s surprisingly quiet for its location and the habits of the locals, and an easy walk to almost anywhere you’d want to go in Palermo.