If you have three days to visit Palermo, you can not only enjoy the famous Old Town with its unmissable Arab-Norman itinerary, but also get away to discover other places and deepen the visit of this fascinating and great cities. The routes that I recommend to "palermo 2 days ", we can add a third day full of surprises.
- Moving car, apply now stop in Mondello, the much-loved seaside resort by Palermo with its lovely bay dominated by the promontory of Monte Pellegrino. Mondello is not only a beautiful white beach with crystal clear water, It offers large elegant villas of the rich avenues in art nouveau style, a magical beach of '900 and also a picturesque fishing village with its square and the locals eat fresh fish. If in summer a walk to Mondello can be chaotic for the excessive presence of bathers, take advantage of the spring and autumn months, and you can easily take the opportunity of a wonderful bathroom off season!
- Along the road to Mondello, I will never recommend to take a detour and go up on Mount Pellegrino to visit Shrine of Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo. The sanctuary is a charming grotto where, in 1624, the bones of the virgin Palermo who died were found in the twelfth century after it withdrew as a hermit. The bones were found during a devastating epidemic of plague that was raging in the city and, after the relics were carried in procession through the city, the disease miraculously ceased, and Rosalia was proclaimed patron saint of Palermo. Every year, the 15 July, the city celebrates the anniversary of the discovery with a folkloric and popular procession: the Festin.
- Always towards Mondello worth visiting Chinese building, inside the Parco della Favorita. commissioned in 1799 by Ferdinand of Bourbon as a royal residence when they moved to Palermo to escape the riots in Naples, the small royal palace present a particular style to the Chinese precisely,with the interior dining room decorations that range from oriental taste to Neoclassical through Moorish or neo-Pompeian elements.
- To visit is the adjacent Malaspina Giuseppe Pitre (currently being restored) housed in the premises of the annexe of the Palazzo. The museum, founded by the illustrious ethnologist Giuseppe Pitre, It offers a very wide collection of material documenting the traditional Sicilian history.
- If you want to dive for a couple of hours in the eighteenth and nineteenth century the once rich Palermo, do not you will be spoiled for choice. Palazzo Mirto, near Piazza Marina, It is one of the most famous and luxurious; but to be seen is also Villa Whitaker a Malfitano (in via Dante) surrounded by a nice park.
- It's still Palace Asmundo in front of the Cathedral or Palazzo Conte Federico. If you wish to enjoy a true luxury, book a visit to the Palazzo Valguarnera Hooks, in whose dazzling hall of mirrors Visconti filmed the famous scene of the Leopard dance.
- Different style, but equally unmissable, the medieval Clearly Palazzo Steri, in Piazza Marina, today seat of the Rector of the University. To see the beautiful interior courtyard, the hall of the barons, with famous richly decorated wooden ceiling, and the Inquisition prisons here had its seat until 1782.
- finally, Another suggestion is to take a nice walk 'Botanical Garden. created in 1789, in his 10 hectares, It offers a rich collection with about 12000 different species of plants. Wonderful walk through its avenues, shaded by huge ficus "strangler", enjoying a peace that makes us forget the chaos of the city within walking distance.
