Palermo must see's and don't bother's??

[holdon216]

We will be there next June 9am-6pm on our first Mediterranean cruise. Any information about Palermo would be great. I'm not finding much info at all on Palermo on the threads.

Thanks

[KCcruisin07]

We took the Streaty Food Tour https://www.streaty.com/city/street-food-tours-in-palermo/  which I booked on  Viator.com. We had a walking  tour of the market area, lots of history and tried a variety of Sicilian food. The tour lasted 2-3 hours and involved a lot of walking.

 

We met at the Teatro Massimo just outside the food markets. There are at least a few tours going on simultaneously. We were not with Streaty himself, but the guide was fine.

 

There were some other food tours. They just were rated a little lower.

[edinburgher]

We were there last month for the first time and would love to return.  It is an amazing city to explore. It is also flat, which is a bonus. The old town looks rundown and chaotic, but many of the best bits are hidden inside buildings or behind gates. Palermo is stuffed with palaces and spectacular church interiors. You could easily spend 3 or 4 days there exploring, but as you don't have that, you have some tough choices to make.

 

There is lots of info online about Palermo which you need to read to help you decide what will be of most interest to you.

 

We started with tripadvisor, looking at the best reviewed sites and the photos. If you think that viewing more church interiors won't be too interesting, think again as a number of them are different and special.

 

I cannot recommend enough, Santa Maria dell'Amirraglio (La Martorana), Chiesa del Gesu, and Chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Allesandria. At the latter, do go into the adjoining bakery which is full of traditional Sicilian bakery items. If you never tried cannoli, this is the place. In close proximity to each other, also to the Four Corners and the Fontana Pretoria, so you can see quite a few of the top sites without having far to go between them.

 

Enjoy. We did.

 

Edited July 6, 2019 by edinburgher

[cruisequeen4ever]

Book a shore excursion; don’t wander alone. It’s not known to be a safe city, and the drivers are self-described as non-rule following. This results in craziness in the streets. We did a great shore excursion that toured the Catacombs, some beautiful churches, and gave us some independent snack time in a pretty square. We never felt unsafe, but the area closer to the port would not be an area I’d want to be in without a group. 

[edinburgher]

We never felt unsafe at any time and we walked everywhere including from the port and back to it. The HoHos and other tour options were parked on the street outside the port and Tourist Info is there too.

 

Took the usual precautions against potential pickpocketing , didn't wear any valuable jewellery and kept hold of our cameras. We do these things everywhere we go so our precautions were not unique to Palermo.

 

The driving we saw wasn't noticeably different from driving elsewhere in Italy, and pedestrians need to be especially careful when crossing roads. Not much traffic inside the oldest part of town where the sights we visited are located.

 

Were though, surprised at just how busy Palermo was.  Many tourists and an awful lot of tour groups who must have come from elsewhere as ours was the only ship in that day.

 

Perhaps we were just lucky?

Edited July 21, 2019 by edinburgher

[cruisemom42]

I have to agree with edinburgher that Palermo is not any more "unsafe" than other large cities. The area near the port is not terrible; it is actually very close to the historic part of the city. As has been mentioned, take normal precautions and you will be fine if you want to explore on your own.

 

As far as highlights, I've been to Palermo several times and the mosaics in the Cappella Palatina blow me away every time. I think they are truly the most "must see" thing in Palermo.

 

http://www.wondersofsicily.com/palermo-palatine-chapel.htm

 

[edinburgher]

In many ways, Palermo reminded us of the historic area of Naples. The same rundown dilapidated look, much graffiti, and the same traffic chaos. Looking beyond all that, what both cities have in common is many hidden gems if you know where to find them, so it pays to do some homework beforehand.

 

We would love to go back to Palermo.