Sfincione soft focaccia with tomato, onion, anchovies and caciocavallo
Tall, soft bread dough, tomato, onion, anchovies, oregano and caciocavallo: sfincione is Palermo's focaccia, cut into squares.
Read more →Palermo's territory touches five neighbouring provinces — Trapani, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Enna and Messina — and takes in Ustica as well, an island out in the Tyrrhenian Sea administered from Palermo itself. There are 82 municipalities in all, running from the north coast into the Sicilian interior, and the capital alone accounts for more than half the population. Since 2015 it has officially been a metropolitan city, though few Sicilians call it that.
In Palermo the old centre works on foot from the Quattro Canti crossroads: the Martorana and San Giovanni degli Eremiti with its red Norman domes, the Zisa and the Cuba, both survivors of the Arab-Norman palaces, the Gesù church for full-blown Sicilian baroque. Outside the city, Monreale is the standard half-day trip, Cefalù the one people go to for the sea, while Bagheria and Terrasini fill in the coast either side.
Towns in the province of Palermo
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82 towns
Alia Alimena Aliminusa Altavilla Milicia Altofonte Bagheria Balestrate Baucina Belmonte Mezzagno Bisacquino Blufi Bolognetta Bompietro Borgetto Caccamo Caltavuturo Campofelice di Fitalia Campofelice di Roccella Campofiorito Camporeale Capaci Carini Castelbuono Casteldaccia Castellana Sicula Castronovo di Sicilia Cefalà Diana Cefalù Cerda Chiusa Sclafani Ciminna Cinisi Collesano Contessa Entellina Corleone Ficarazzi Gangi Geraci Siculo Giardinello Giuliana Godrano Gratteri Isnello Isola delle Femmine Lascari Lercara Friddi Marineo Mezzojuso Misilmeri Monreale Montelepre Montemaggiore Belsito Palazzo Adriano Palermo Capital Partinico Petralia Soprana Petralia Sottana Piana degli Albanesi Polizzi Generosa Pollina Prizzi Roccamena Roccapalumba San Cipirello San Giuseppe Jato San Mauro Castelverde Santa Cristina Gela Santa Flavia Sciara Scillato Sclafani Bagni Termini Imerese Terrasini Torretta Trabia Trappeto Ustica Valledolmo Ventimiglia di Sicilia Vicari Villabate Villafrati
The top 20 places in Palermo
Our editors' ranking: the area's most important places, drawn from the individual town guides. See the national rankings →
1 ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries Monreale Cathedral 📍 Monreale A Christ Pantocrator 13 metres by 7, in a church lined with gold mosaic since 1172. 
2 🏰 Castles & palaces Palazzo dei Normanni e Cappella Palatina 📍 Palermo An Arab muqarnas ceiling with 3,300 figures above Roger II's Norman chapel of gold mosaics. 
3 ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries Cattedrale di Palermo 📍 Palermo A UNESCO World Heritage site since 2015, this cathedral houses Gagini's marbles and the silver urn of Saint Rosalia. - 4 Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele Palermo · 🖼️ Museums
- 5 chiesa della Martorana Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
- 6 catacombe dei Cappuccini Palermo · 🖼️ Museums
- 7 La Zisa Palermo · 🖼️ Museums
- 8 chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
- 9 Museo archeologico regionale Antonino Salinas Palermo · 🖼️ Museums
- 10 Palazzo Natoli Palermo · 🏰 Castles & palaces
- 11 Palazzo Abatellis Palermo · 🖼️ Museums
- 12 ponte dell'Ammiraglio Palermo · 🏛️ Squares & old towns
- 13 chiesa del Gesù Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
- 14 teatro Politeama Garibaldi Palermo · 🖼️ Museums
- 15 basilica della Santissima Trinità del Cancelliere Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
- 16 chiesa del Santo Spirito Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
- 17 Palazzo Chiaramonte Palermo · 🏰 Castles & palaces
- 18 chiesa di San Giuseppe dei Teatini Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
- 19 palazzo Pretorio Palermo · 🏰 Castles & palaces
- 20 chiesa di San Domenico Palermo · ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries
Palermo and around, on the map
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
🍝 At the table: Sicily
Arancina fried rice ball stuffed with meat ragù
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo cheese inside a golden crust. Round and feminine in Palermo, pointed and called arancino in Catania: the quarrel is serious.
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Arancino fried rice cone stuffed with ragù, pointed like Etna
Saffron rice, ragù with peas and caciocavallo inside a golden cone-shaped crust: in Catania it is masculine and pointed, and the quarrel with Palermo over the name is serious.
Read more →Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideProvince of Palermo
Upcoming events in Palermo
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Funghi Fest
📅 Every year, one weekend in late October
A late-October weekend built around the mushrooms of the Madonie woods: twice-daily tastings in Piazza Castello, show cooking, guided forest walks and stalls along Via Sant'Anna. The 2025 edition was the nineteenth.
Saint Leonard of Noblac and the Madonna who set the price of bread
📅 Every year, on 6 November
Partinico celebrates Saint Leonard of Noblac on 6 November; on the evening of the feast, until 1819, his church was where the price ceiling on foodstuffs was set, while the most heartfelt devotion remains that for the Madonna del Ponte.
Saint Nicholas of Myra, patron in an Arbëreshë town with sweets made without salt or yeast
📅 Every year, on 6 December, with the traditional Bukiçelet e Shën Kollit sweets
Contessa Entellina celebrates Saint Nicholas of Myra on 6 December; the town's Arbëreshë tradition calls for preparing Bukiçelet e Shën Kollit for the occasion, sweets made of water and flour, without salt or yeast, kneaded and portioned by hand.
Saint Nicholas of Bari, patron of the village founded by Count Matteo Sclafani
📅 Every year, on 6 December
Chiusa Sclafani celebrates Saint Nicholas of Bari on 6 December, in the mother church dedicated to him; the town was founded in the early 14th century by Count Matteo Sclafani, who expanded the pre-existing medieval hamlet of «Chiusa la vecchia».