Palermo

Visiting Sicily’s capital hadn’t been a priority for us; we’d heard Palermo variously described as big, rundown and rough. We went anyway.

The description turned out to be pretty accurate – Palermo is all that, and a lot more. It’s a great city. Probably not somewhere we’d want to stay for an extended period, but absolutely worth a visit.

Palermo was founded by the Phoenicians about 2700 years ago; the city was originally named Ziz, meaning flower

Since then Palermo has been ruled by Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Bourbons and Austrians - among others (the jacarandas here made us think of home)

That history has left the city with some extraordinary architecture; this is the remarkable Quattro Canti at the intersection of the city's two main streets

Four near-identical Baroque facades on a small piazza; it's hard to describe how wonderful this is, and certainly pictures don't do justice to the Quattro Canti

Teatro Massimo, Italy's largest and Europe's third largest opera house

The view from the Royal Box; when they're not otherwise occupied, these seats are available for purchase at the theatre's normal rates

Teatro Politeama Garibaldi, home of the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra; (the lovely man in the photo was heading into the building - on the way past he gave us a picture of St Rita and explained where in the Duomo we could find her statue if we wanted to see it)

The magnificent monumental Fontana Pretoria was erected in 1574; it was constructed in Florence and transported to Palermo in pieces

The fountain's statues depicting naked mythological figures led to the Piazza initially being dubbed the 'Square of Shame'

Palermo Cathedral is one of the most impressive - and diverse - examples of the city's architecture

It is Arab-Norman, but with later Renaissance and Baroque additions

There are many beautiful churches in Palermo; the city's history means each one is different

The Church of St Catherine (Sicilian Baroque, Rococco and Renaissance)

And the Matorana (Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio), founded in 1143 and decorated with golden Byzantine mosaics

Right beside the Matorana and from around the same time (1154), the gloriously simple Arab-Norman Church of San Cataldo

That's San Cataldo on the right with the distinctive red domes, and the Matorana on the left

And in the hills overlooking Palermo, the Cathedral of Monreale

One of the great examples of Norman architecture, visitors come from around the world to see Monreale

The dazzling mosaics, which cover more 6300 square metres of the church's interior, were completed in just 3 years (1179-1182)

The view from Monreale looking out over Palermo

While there's a lot of lavish architecture in Palermo, there's a lot of this too (which we also loved)

And here's another take on architecture in Palermo; we thought there was a touch of austere Soviet about this Post Office

Of course there's more to Palermo than buildings - there's also the food; Sicily is the home of arancini (rice balls stuffed with all sorts of good things)

And this was a modern take on an old favourite - conolo filled with orange ricotta (delicious!)

In the end we were really pleased to have visited Palermo and seen just some of the city's remarkable treasures