Palermo

Sicily is divided into 9 provinces, Palermo is both capital and the centre of regional government. Palermo Cathedral This city can be considered a real synthesis of the many different cultures and civilizations, politics and domination wich succeded in Sicily throughout the centuries. Founded by the Phoenicians, it soon became a centre of trade and political interests, in Norman and Arab times. Its many monuments, especially the baroque, give it a characteristic appearance. This magnificent capital of sicily is still a century-old city with an interesting layout, and while great and important treasures are kept in its museums, Monreale and Cefalù as well Palermo uniquely interesting poles of attraction. All three cities have famous beautiful mosaic. One of Palermo’s well conserved jewels is the Norman palatine chapel built at the time roger II; it is in Palazzo dei Normanni, the seat of the Sicilian regional assembly. Therefore a careful observer will not miss to notice traces of the Arabian Palermo, for example the cupolas of san Giovanni degli eremiti a those of san Giovanni dei Lebbrosi, the cathedral and the martorana in wich is grafted the Norman style of many residences and churches. Rulers who came by sea wanted these monuments to beautify the capital of their kingdom, so they set up the first structures of the cathedral and also those of the palace, which today is the seat of regional parliament. Palermo is a baroque town in its feasts as well. Many of these had very old traditions and habits. It is so for the feast of Santa Rosalia, the patron saints to whom many pilgrims address with devotion; it is so for many different ways of expressing one’s religiousness, almost in the pagan way, following the procession of good Friday; and finally, it is so in the evocative “feast of the dead”. But Palermo is its sea a well, even if it is a bit hidden from our view by its harbour.