Palermo

Located in the North-West of Sicily, Palermo is washed by the Tyrrhenian Sea and offers an extensive range of landscapes and surroundings. The town extends in the Conca d'Oro plain, in front of the wide and wonderful gulph, which she has taken the name from. Palermo has got a privileged position and a mild climate that favors the presence of luxuriant vegetation.

Festival
The Palermo folklore is rich in religious festivals and celebrations. The most famous celebration is the one in St Rosalia's honor, patron saint of Palermo, which is celebrated from the 13th to the 15th July. This feast, which was very sumptuous in the past, is now an important popular festival, known as "U fistinu".

Food
The gastronomy from Palermo is many centuries old and this has contributed to improving and enriching its recipes and tastes. A big variety of fragrances and ingredients mix well together: a refined and a poor cookery, recipes for fish and meat dishes, the meeting between sweet and spicy dishes characterize the cooking from Palermo. Among the typical courses we recommend you the pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines), the sformato di anelletti al forno and other many cooking specialties based on vegetables, as the caponata di melanzane (a sort of aubergine pie).

Places to visit
There are many and very different places to visit in Palermo. We advise you to savor it slowly, while you are walking through its small old town centre, where the architectural styles and the historical periods have mixed together and where the streets and the alleys still preserve the tracks left by the people who have dominated it throughout the centuries.

In the heart of the town you will find Quattro Canti Square, also called Teatro del Sole. Its name comes from the rounded edges of the four Baroque palaces that open onto it and from the four statues that portray the four seasons. Near this place, you will find Pretoria Square, with the St Catherine Church and the monumental Fountain and the Martorana Church, a masterpiece of the Norman art, with vaults decorated by Byzantine mosaics.