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.