Itinerary · 8 days · 36 places
8 Days in Sicily
Eight days across Sicily: four nights in Palermo with the Norman Palace, Ballarò market, Monreale and a day in Cefalù, then two nights in Catania with a full day on Etna, and finally Taormina above the sea.
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Photo: Alexandra Holbea · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arriving in Palermo
Arrival in Palermo
Hotel check-in
The area around Via Maqueda between Quattro Canti and Teatro Massimo is traffic-free in the evening, and every sight in the old town is within a fifteen-minute walk.
Quattro Canti
The Baroque crossroads of 1620, where four concave façades stack fountains, the seasons, Spanish kings and the city's patron saints one above the other.
Fontana Pretoria
The Florentine marble fountain with four dozen naked river gods and nymphs, which is why Palermitans call it the Fountain of Shame.
Evening: Vucciria by night
The old market, sleepy by day, fills up after eight with grill smoke, beer crates as tables and people standing around Piazza Caracciolo.
Day 2Normans, markets and Baroque
Mercato di Ballarò
The city's loudest market stretches from Piazza Ballarò through the Albergheria quarter: swordfish heads, trays of sfincione and the vendors' sung abbanniate.
San Giovanni degli Eremiti
Norman church with five bright red domes and a small cloister of paired columns filled with lemon trees and agaves.
Palazzo dei Normanni with Cappella Palatina
Inside the royal palace is Roger II's palace chapel of 1140 — Byzantine gold mosaics beneath an Arab stalactite ceiling of painted wood.
Palermo Cathedral
The Norman-era building sports Arab crenellations, a Catalan porch and a Neoclassical dome; the porphyry sarcophagi of the Hohenstaufen stand in the side aisle.
Teatro Massimo
Italy's largest opera house, from 1897, whose grand staircase is known from the final scene of The Godfather Part III; a half-hour tour takes in the auditorium and royal box.
Evening: Via Maqueda
The main axis between Quattro Canti and Teatro Massimo, car-free in the evening, with street musicians and café tables spilling out onto the paving.
Day 3Monreale and the Gulf of Mondello
Monreale Cathedral
At 300 metres above the Conca d'Oro, the largest mosaic cycle of the Middle Ages covers 6300 square metres of wall — from Christ Pantocrator in the apse to Noah's Ark in the nave.
Monreale Cloister
228 paired columns of the Benedictine monastery, each decorated differently with mosaic, zigzag or tendrils, plus an Arab fountain in the south-west corner.
Santuario di Santa Rosalia on Monte Pellegrino
The pilgrimage church of the city's patron saint is set half inside a cave in Palermo's own mountain; from the terrace in front you see Palermo, the harbour and Mondello all at once.
Mondello beach
Two kilometres of pale sand in a bay between Monte Pellegrino and Monte Gallo, gently shelving and still a good 25 degrees in September.
Evening: Charleston pier in Mondello
The Liberty-style pavilion of 1913 stands on stilts in the water and is floodlit at night, while the promenade around it fills with gelaterias and panelle stalls.
Day 4Day trip to Cefalù
Cefalù Cathedral
The regional train from Palermo Centrale takes just under an hour; the Norman cathedral of 1131 has a Christ Pantocrator in its apse considered the oldest and sternest in Sicily.
Lavatoio Medievale
A spiral staircase of lava stone leads down from the Corso to the medieval wash house, where spring water runs through stone basins to the sea.
La Rocca di Cefalù
The climb up switchbacks and steps to the rock passes the megalithic Temple of Diana on the way to the castle ruins, from where the old town looks like a tiled roof set in the sea.
Spiaggia di Cefalù
The sandy beach right below the old town, at whose eastern end the old fishermen's houses with their arches reach down to the water.
Evening: Corso Ruggero
The main street between Piazza Duomo and Porta Marina, full of strollers in the evening; at its lower end you look through the town gate onto the dark sea.
Day 5On to Catania: lava city by the sea
Onward to Catania
Hotel check-in
Piazza del Duomo with the Elephant Fountain
The black lava elephant with its Egyptian obelisk stands in front of St Agatha's Cathedral, whose Baroque façade is striped in lava stone and white limestone.
Castello Ursino
The Hohenstaufen castle of 1240 once stood by the water, until the lava flow of 1669 left it half a kilometre inland; inside is the city museum.
Villa Bellini
The city park on Via Etnea with avenues of ficus, a flower clock and a terrace from which Etna rises above the rooftops.
Teatro Romano di Catania
The Roman theatre of lava stone is wedged between residential buildings, and groundwater still seeps up from below into the seating tiers.
Evening: Piazza Vincenzo Bellini
The square in front of the Bellini opera house fills up after nine with wine bars under the arcades and people sitting on the steps.
Day 6A day on Etna
Monti Rossi near Nicolosi
The red twin crater above Nicolosi was formed in the 1669 eruption that reached Catania; a path through the pines leads to the crater rim in twenty minutes.
Crateri Silvestri
Two extinct side craters from 1892 at 1900 metres, whose rims you can walk around over black lapilli in just under an hour.
Funivia dell'Etna
The cable car climbs from Rifugio Sapienza to 2500 metres; from there you continue by 4x4 bus with a mountain guide towards Torre del Filosofo at 2900 metres.
Schiena dell'Asino
The viewing ridge above the Valle del Bove, an eight-kilometre-wide collapse basin into which the lava flows of recent eruptions have poured.
Evening: Via Santa Filomena
The narrow lane behind Via Etnea is completely filled with tables in the evening, serving grilled fish and Etna wines.
Day 7Taormina above the sea
Onward to Taormina
Hotel check-in
Teatro Antico di Taormina
Laid out by the Greeks and rebuilt by the Romans, the theatre has Etna and the Bay of Naxos as its backdrop behind the brick arches.
Corso Umberto
The main street between Porta Messina and Porta Catania, lined with ceramics shops, Baroque doorways and the 14th-century Palazzo Corvaja.
Villa Comunale
The terraced garden laid out by Florence Trevelyan in the 19th century, with her brick follies and a view straight down onto the bay.
Isola Bella
The tiny island in the nature reserve is tied to the shore by a shingle spit you can cross dry-footed depending on the water level; the cable car runs down to Mazzarò.
Evening: Piazza IX Aprile
The balcony terrace halfway along the Corso, with chequerboard paving, clock tower and the illuminated Etna opposite — street musicians play here in the evening.
Day 8Castelmola and departure
Castelmola
The hill village some 300 metres above Taormina has castle ruins, a square paved with lava-stone mosaic and Bar Turrisi with its almond wine.
Madonna della Rocca
The chapel half carved into the rock on the old stepped path to Castelmola; from the platform in front, the theatre, old town and coast lie one below the other.
Departure from Taormina
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