“Italy without Sicily doesn’t leave any image in your soul, Sicily is the key to everythings.“
(J.Wolfong Von Goethe)
Full day tour of Palermo and Monreale:
Capital town of the island, Palermo is the only place that still shows the magnificence of the melting-pot of cultures present here from the middle ages.
We will visit the XII century Palatine chapel, built under king Roger II, and entirely decorated with Byzantine and Arabic mosaics.
Next is the Cathedral where we will also admire the tombs of the Norman kings.
Then we will walk to the nearby Quattro Canti, to Piazza Pretoria and to St. Mary of the Admiral church .Afterwards we drive to Monreale, a nearby small town where is the unique Norman Cathedral covered with 6.340 sqm of mosaics.
Half day walking tour of Palermo:
We depart from Piazza Politeama the XIX century area of the city, we proceed along the elegant section of the city to arrive in the square of Palermo’s opera house Teatro Massimo which is the third largest in Europe .
Continue our walk to the XVII century Quattro Canti than along to Piazza Pretoria, to see the late Renaissance style fountain, afterwards we will visit the church of St Mary of the Admiral in Bellini Square.
Our next destination is the outstanding Palermo’s Cathedral, with its Arabic Norman style facade. We will enjoy as well a stroll through one of the colourful open air markets in Palermo where we can enjoy the typical local food.
Half day tour of the Mysteries of Palermo:
Our mysteries will be:
Joyful at the Zisa castle
Mummies at the Catacombes
Glorious at the Spasimo
This is a tour that includes some of the most unusual monuments in the entire world.
The Zisa castle which was built by king William I has his private summer residence, once surrounded by a huge Arabic style garden. From there we will go to the impressive and shocking Capuchin Catacombs, where we will be surprised by the macabre sight of about 8.000 mummies dressed in their best Sunday clothes, most of them hanging on the walls.
We will finish our day with the visit of the Spasimo, once a church now transformed into an open-air theatre . Symbol of the rebirth of the city it’s situated in the pulsating heart of the Kalsa area, the old Arabic head-quarter.
Half day Baroque Palermo tour:
We start with visit of the most beautiful baroque church in Palermo Santa Caterina still now a cloister nuns monastery , then onto the Quattro Canti which is the precise centre of the baroque city.
There we enter the Saint Joseph church, decorated with precious marbles and frescoes and famous holy water spring .We will continue with a visit of a special aspect of the baroque aspect of the Palermo baroque style : Giacomo Serpotta’s masterpieces , Oratorio del SS. Rosario and Santa Cita which is decorated with wonderful stuccoes.
Full day Jewish Palermo tour:
We will explore what is left of the Jewish community in Palermo after they exiled in 1492.
Our tour starts with exploring the site where there once was a sinagogue. In the middle ages the Jewish community was perfectly intergrated, for a better understanding of the peaceful co-existence we will discover from visiting Palermo’s Cathedral and the Norman Palace.
We will proceed with a visit of the Zisa castle built in Arabic Norman style, where there’s a Hebrew inscription on a candle holder and on a burial stone.
We finish with a visit at the Palace which was the place of the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition.