Start from 37 curated places around Palermo, IT, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Trattoria Ai Cascinari
A classic Palermo trattoria with marble floors and wooden tables, serving a menu that reads like a greatest-hits of Sicilian cooking — pasta con le sarde, involtini, caponata, fresh fish. Lunch here fills up with locals from the neighbourhood and the occasional in-the-know visitor. Closed Monday and Tuesday, which is often a sign you are eating somewhere that doesn't need the tourists.
Ristorante Quattro Mani
Bib Gourmand-recognised restaurant on Piazza Magione in the Kalsa, run by two chefs who source obsessively from Sicilian producers. The menu is short and seasonal, heavy on premium seafood and island vegetables. It sits on one of Palermo's most atmospheric squares, so arriving early gives you time to appreciate the Norman church across the piazza.
Trails & outdoors
Monte Pellegrino via Salita Santa Rosalia
The ancient pilgrimage path up Palermo's 609-metre rocky headland follows a cobbled mule track known locally as l'Acchianata — the climb — to the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia, the city's patron saint. It is one of the most historically resonant hikes in Sicily, combining limestone karst scenery with sweeping views over Palermo and the bay. The sanctuary at the top is built into a natural cave and worth exploring before descending.
Riserva Naturale dello Zingaro
Sicily's first nature reserve, about 70km west of Palermo, protects seven kilometres of unspoilt coastline between Scopello and San Vito lo Capo with sea caves, crystal coves, falcons overhead and Mediterranean scrub. The coastal trail is the main draw, threading past small museums and tiny beaches you can only reach on foot. It is a half-day or full-day trip from Palermo by car, non-negotiable for anyone who hikes.
Things to do
Teatro Massimo
The third-largest opera house in Europe, an imposing neoclassical pile on Piazza Verdi that is as much an architectural landmark as a performing arts venue. Opera, ballet and concerts run through the season, and guided tours of the interior run most days. The main staircase featured in the closing scene of The Godfather Part III, which visitors are not allowed to forget.
Museo Archeologico Regionale Antonino Salinas
One of Italy's great provincial archaeological museums, housed in a former monastery near the Vucciria market, with exceptional collections of Punic, Greek and Roman artefacts from across Sicily. The metopes from the temples of Selinunte — carved stone friezes depicting mythological scenes — are the centrepiece and among the finest examples of Archaic Greek sculpture in existence. The Etruscan and pre-Sicilian collections are deep enough for multiple visits.
Landmarks & sights
Mercato di Ballarò
Palermo's oldest and loudest market has been feeding the city for over a thousand years, sprawling across the Albergheria quarter from Piazza Ballarò to the bastions of Corso Tukory. Vendors drop panelle into bubbling oil to order, slice sfincione fresh off the tray, and hawk stigghiola from smoking charcoal grills. Get there before noon when the fish is freshest and the chanting vendors are in full voice.
Palazzo dei Normanni e Cappella Palatina
The seat of the Sicilian Parliament since Norman times holds within it the Cappella Palatina, a 12th-century royal chapel whose ceiling, walls and dome are covered in gold Byzantine mosaics that took decades to complete. The fusion of Norman, Arab and Byzantine craftsmanship is the defining monument of Palermo's layered history. The chapel's coffered wooden muqarnas ceiling is Arab craftsmanship at its finest — rare anywhere in the world.