In Sicily, I've been to three different cities - Catania, Palermo and Siracusa. These three cities have very different characteristics. Catania is a bit smaller compared to Palermo, and looks more traditional than Palermo does. Palermo is the biggest and busiest city of all and mostly the wealthy people live in it, while Catania could be explained as a place for the poor. You could spend a whole day in Palermo (but surely that would be enough to see every important thing in the city; palaces, theatres, squares and etc.) Catania had a street going down, which is the only famous one in the city, and there are loads loads loads of cute small shopping stores from where you can buy Italian-made products. (I would like to mention something I've learned when I was there: Catanians and Palermo citizens don't like each other at all; they're like two different football teams who hate each other - When I asked "why?", noone had an answer to that.)

Cattedrale di Palermo

And Siracusa is way too different from these two, because it's just some kind of holiday place where you can find very quiet beaches and Mediterranean restaurants where you can eat some Carbonara or Mediterranean salads.

To start with Palermo - one day would be well enough for the whole city, because there are not much to see. One cathedral, one palace (where you have to wait in a long queue), one theatre, one city centre, two popular boulevards and a huge seaport. That's all! I was lucky enough to meet an Australian while waiting in the queue for the palace, so we went around to see all these within only a few hours.

Porta Nuova

The Porta Nuova (the New Door in English) is where we started our journey. This entrance stands at the beginning of Corso Calatafimi, and is as small as only one or two cars can get through it. The beautiful sculptures on it look very old as if marking the fact that this door is actually from the second half of sixteenth century. They call this as an "entrance to the city", as this is actually where the central city begins.

Following that way, you can be directly linked to the Palermo Cathedral (Cattedrale di Palermo); the biggest and most well-known cathedral in Palermo. It's beaaautiful inside, but the outside of the cathedral has more than its inside to be honest, and I liked the pictures we had in front of the building very much.

I know a lot about the cathedral, but don't really want to be boring to those who are only in an attempt of knowing a little information about the city. The cathedral is located right at the end of the square named Piazza della Cattedrale. This square, or Piazza as they call it, is a masterpiece itself: It's all surroundered by sculptures from different eras - sculptures created in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries... The façade is framed by two belltowers with very interesting Islamic motifs. Some other parts are decorated in Gothic style - which is my favourite all the time.

Cattedrale di Palermo

Inside the building, long ago, as they tell, the decoration was completely different, but with the new appearance, it is all Neo-Classical with a very high altar. I would recommend you to go and see every corner of the cathedral, because the small chapels are mostly hided to those corners - one of them are Chapel of Santa Rosalia, who is the city's patron saint. Besides all, there are very interesting objects from the old times, such as the 18th century liturgical vestment and the famous golden tiara set with pearls and precious stones (This tiara belonged to Constance of Aragon).

Inside the cathedral

You can't enter the cathedral every day and every hour, but there are some specific times in a day that you can enter as a tourist and see the inside of it. The atmosphere inside is great, although it's a bit busy during the day - when the tourists are allowed to enter. It's not that big and different but definitely worth seeing with the paintings on the walls and its high altar which helps the cathedral look very bright through the day.

There are loads more to tell about the cathedral but as I told you I don't want you to get bored - Go and see it! It's one of the best parts of the city - apart from the palace and the theatre of course!

Right next to the cathedral, you will see the Regional Archaeological Museum - of which I had no time to visit (I mostly prefer seeing the outsides first, which is not a good thing anyway...)

What's more about Palermo? It's a city of art and history BUT, that doesn't mean that you cannot swim! Palermo has a huge, and a very busy beach, to where I accidentally went on a weekend - never do that.

That's enough for the cathedral I think. I will also write about the beach and the other must-see places of Palermo soon - so keep following!