Berlitz: Sicily Pocket Guide

• Publisher: Berlitz Travel
• ISBN:
  9781780047973
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Berlitz Pocket Guide Sicily is a concise, full-colour travel guide that gives you reliable, user-friendly detail alongside vivid photography. This compact guidebook is all you need to help you find the best places to visit and things to do on the island. Sicily is a fascinating island, packed with the remains of ancient cultures, from Roman amphitheatres and Greek temples to stunning Arab-Norman mosaics in the cathedrals. We guide you round the entire island showing you its many facets, from the chaos and bustle of Palermo to the quiet fishing villages, national parks and volcanic islands.

To inspire you, the book offers a rundown of Sicily's Top 10 Attractions, followed by an itinerary for a Perfect Tour. The What to Do chapter offers a selection of ways to spend your spare time, from nightlife and shopping to hiking up Mount Etna.

All the essential background information is here, including an overview of the island's history, and the delicious Sicilian food. There are carefully chosen listings of the best hotels and restaurants in Sicily and an A-Z of all the practical information you'll need.

Where To Go

The easiest way to see a good measure of Sicily’s cities, ruins, beaches and other attractions is to circle the coast and make occasional forays into the interior and to nearby islands. We begin in Palermo, and head east to start a tour.

Ragusa Ibla

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

Palermo

Palermo 1 [map] does not readily enchant its visitors. The chaotic capital of Sicily is noisy and traffic-filled, riddled with decay in parts, overbuilt with concrete in others. But take your time and walk the narrow streets and alleys of the old city. You’ll discover Norman palaces, Baroque churches, chapels shimmering in mosaics, outdoor markets overflowing with olives and blood oranges, quaint puppet theatres and grandiose oratories; and, smoothing out the rough edges, a great deal of warm-hearted street life. Moreover the city is being revitalized, with the restoration of some of the major churches and museums and the opening of new contemporary galleries.

The Quattro Canti

The Quattro Canti A, [map] or Four Corners, is the hectic crossroads at the centre of the old city that divides it into four quartiere, quarters; most of Palermo’s sights are an easy walk from this busy junction, the intersection of the Via Maqueda and the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. The façades of the buildings on each corner here – three Baroque palazzi and the church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini – are ornamented with fountains, and each is also embellished in turn with statuary that represents a season, one of four Spanish kings of Sicily and the patron saint of one of the four quarters that surround the Quattro Canti. If the church is open, step inside for a look at the angels, stuccoes, frescoes and other ornamentation that are typical of the Sicilian Baroque.

Piazza Pretoria B [map] is just a few steps south along Via Maqueda. The Fontana Pretoria takes up most of the square and in more puritan times was nicknamed the Piazza della Vergogna, or Square of Shame – this being a reference to the seeming licentiousness of the naked figures who frolic in the spray. More than 30 naked or near-naked nymphs, tritons, gods and youths of varying sizes and quality surround the fountain’s vast circular basin. Garibaldi is said to have sat on the edge of the fountain during the fierce battles of 1870, instilling the citizenry with the courage to fight on for independence. Flanking one side of the square is the Palazzo delle Aquile, the town hall, named for the stone eagles that decorate its façade. The other massive presence is the church of Santa Caterina; behind its austere façade is another Baroque interior, covered with brightly coloured frescoes and plasterwork angels that tumble from every surface.

In Piazza Pretoria, Palermo

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

The Piazza Bellini, just a few steps to the east, is graced with the three small red domes of the chapel of San Cataldo C [map] (open Mon–Sat 9am–2pm, 3.30–7pm, Sun 9am–2pm) and the 12th-century campanile of La Martorana D. [map] San Cataldo is squat and plain, and aside from its mosaic flooring, was left undecorated when its founder, a chancellor of William I, died in 1160. La Martorana (closed for restoration) is more elaborate, and was founded by George of Antioch, Roger II’s chief minister, in 1146 as a seat of the Greek Orthodox church. Despite a Baroque restoration that added the cupids around the entryway, much of the Norman mosaic work remains intact. The gold, green and azure tiles of the dome depict Christ flanked by saints and prophets, and a nearby mosaic of Christ crowning Roger II is said to be a reliable likeness of the Norman king.

Statues defaced

Nuns, it is said, chopped off the noses of the statues of naked men in Piazza Pretoria but stopped short of castration. The noses have been restored and ornamental railings now ensure no one gets too close.

The Albergheria

The streets and alleys of the Albergheria quarter, once the home of Norman court officials and rich merchants from Pisa and Amalfi, stretch south and west of Piazza Bellini. Via Maqueda and Via Bosco lead into the centre of the quarter, the Piazza Carmine, passing stately palaces, centuries-old buildings that show their age and the occasional rubble-filled site left by World War II bombings. The stalls of the Mercato di Ballarò E, [map] Palermo’s liveliest daily market, fill Piazza Carmine, the adjacent Piazza Ballarò and the surrounding streets. It is raucous, sprawling and exotic, with mountains of lemons and oranges, slabs of tuna and swordfish, pigs’ trotters and intestines. Above this busy scene rises the green-and-white dome of Chiesa del Gesù, founded in the late 16th century as the first Jesuit church in Sicily, and that of the church of the Carmine. While the interior of Il Gesù is another swirl of Baroque excess, that of the Carmine is vast and far more sedate.

Palermo’s Cathedral

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

The Cattedrale and Palazzo dei Normanni

From Quattro Canti, Corso Vittorio Emanuele leads west past shops and Baroque palaces to several of Palermo’s most important monuments. The first is the Cattedrale F [map] (Mon–Sat 7am–7pm, Sun 8am–1pm and 4–7pm) that was begun in 1185 but not completed, with the addition of a dome, until 1801. As a result, the building is an incongruous mixture of styles: the 12th-century towers are Norman, the façade and south porch are Gothic and the interior is coldly Neoclassical.

The church is a pantheon of the Normans, who came to Sicily in 1061, routed the Arabs and ruled the island ably for a century. Roger II, the Norman king who made the island the centre of the Mediterranean World, was interred here among his royal relations against his will: he wanted to be buried in the cathedral he built in Cefalù. In the adjacent Treasury, Constance of Aragon’s bejeweled crown is on display alongside rings and other artifacts removed from the royal tombs during a 19th-century rearrangement. Of a more macabre nature are the relics of several saints, including a withered extremity said to be the foot of Mary Magdalen.

A short distance away is the Palazzo dei Normanni, or Palazzo Reale, that actually was built by Sicily’s Arab rulers in the ninth century. Under both the Arabs and the Normans, Palermo was one of the largest and most civilised cities in the world and the palace was a centre of the arts and learning.

Little of the Arab and Norman palace remains: the façade that overlooks the old city is a 17th-century addition made by the island’s Spanish rulers, and many of the salons and lesser quarters are now occupied by Sicily’s regional government. One stunning Norman remnant, however, is the Cappella Palatina G [map] (open Mon–Sat 8.30am–5pm, Sun 8.15am–12.15pm but no visits 9.45am–11am when religious celebrations take place; charge), the exquisite chapel commissioned by Roger II. Mosaics cover every surface, depicting the tales of the Old and New ...