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Palermo
Palermo is the capital of Sicily and its largest city. The people and places of Palermo proclaim it as a crossroads of Mediterranean cultures. In modern times, Plaermo has earned notoriety as the cradle of Cosa Nostra( the Mafia). Sicily's capital and cultural center features brightly-lit avenues masking a labyrinth of dark, older streets; despite the dilapidation, the palazzi strewn about the town contain some of the most wondrous courtyards in Italy. To reach the exuberant cattedrale from the station, head straight on via Roma, bearing left on Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Nearby, the Palazzo dei Normanni exhibits an impressive fusion of artistic styles and a mucho-mosaicked cappella palatina. Go for baroque at the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini, with its fantastic interior decoration. Interesting Sights PalermoThe Cathedral has a heliometer (solar "observatory") of 1690, one of a number1 built in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The device itself is quite simple: a tiny hole in one of the minor domes acts as Pinhole camera, projecting an image of the sun onto the floor at solar noon (12:00 in winter, 13:00 in summer).
Nowadays Palermo is a fast, brash and exciting city. The mix of arabic and viking influences is one of the strangest and unexpected surprises the city has to offer. Buildings dating from the 11th and 12th century, the heyday of Medieval Sicily, offer this peculiar quality. The most noteworthy and an absolute must is the Palazzo dei Normanni.
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