The Cappella Palatina in Palermo has a Christian chapel plan, Byzantine mosaics in Greek, and a wooden muqarnas ceiling — the honeycomb vaulting of Islamic architecture — carved and painted by Fatimid craftsmen with scenes of court life. It was built in the 1130s for Roger II, a Norman king who ruled Sicily with Arab administrators, Greek scholars and Latin clergy, and who had his coronation mantle embroidered in Kufic Arabic.
That is not a hybrid in the decorative sense. For about a century Sicily ran as a genuinely trilingual state, and the buildings from that period are the physical record of it. Nine of them across Palermo, Cefalù and Monreale were listed by UNESCO in 2015 as Arab-Norman Palermo, and they are the reason to come.
Palermo is not Taormina
Eastern Sicily is the polished half. Palermo is louder, poorer in parts, more chaotic in traffic and considerably more interesting. The markets — Ballarò, Vucciria, Capo — are working street markets with shouting rather than displays. The baroque churches are dark and unrestored. The street food is among the best in Europe and involves organ meat more often than visitors expect.
It rewards patience and it is not a soft landing.
The west
Palermo has the Arab-Norman sites, the markets, the Capuchin catacombs and the opera house.
Monreale and Cefalù, twenty minutes and an hour out, hold the two great mosaic cathedrals. Monreale's apse Christ is the one people travel for.
Trapani and Erice, two hours west, are the salt pans and a medieval town on a mountain at 750 metres that is frequently inside the cloud.
Marsala and the Stagnone, south of Trapani, are the fortified wine and the salt flats with windmills.
Sciacca, on the south coast, is a fishing town with thermal springs and the region's biggest golf resort.
The Egadi islands and Favignana, off Trapani, are a short ferry and much quieter.
The eight below are grouped that way.
Palermo
The city.
Villa Igiea, a Rocco Forte Hotel occupies a liberty-style villa on the seafront at Acquasanta, built in the 1900s for the Florio family, with terraced gardens to the water, a pool and a restoration that brought back the original colours. It is the best hotel in Sicily.
Villa Igiea, a Rocco Forte Hotel
Acquasanta, Palermo · 5★ · $$$$
A Florio liberty villa with gardens to the sea
Check availabilityGrand Hotel et des Palmes sits on the Via Roma in a nineteenth-century building that housed Wagner and Mussolini at different times, with a glazed salon and a faded grandeur it has not tried to sand off.
Grand Hotel et des Palmes
Via Roma, Palermo · 4★ · $$$
A nineteenth-century salon with unsanded grandeur
Check availabilityGrand Hotel Piazza Borsa occupies a palazzo beside the old market quarter with a courtyard, a rooftop and the Vucciria outside.
Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa
Near the Vucciria · 4★ · $$$
A palazzo courtyard beside the old market quarter
Check availabilityPalazzo Sitano sits near the Teatro Massimo in a restored townhouse with contemporary rooms and a good position for the old town on foot.
Palazzo Sitano
Near Teatro Massimo · 4★ · $$
A restored townhouse walkable to the old town
Check availabilityCefalù and the north coast
An hour east, with the mosaic cathedral.
Le Calette N.5 occupies a beachfront position below the Cefalù rock, with a pool, a garden and the Norman cathedral a short walk into town.
Le Calette N.5
Cefalù · 4★ · $$$
A beachfront garden below the rock, near the cathedral
Check availabilityTrapani, Erice and Marsala
The far west.
Baglio Sorìa Resort occupies a converted baglio, a fortified farm estate, outside Trapani with a pool, vineyards and the salt pans nearby.
Baglio Sorìa Resort
Near Trapani · 4★ · $$$
A fortified farm estate among vineyards
Check availabilityBaglio Oneto dei Principi di San Lorenzo sits on a Marsala wine estate in a restored manor with a pool, a cellar and the Stagnone lagoon on the horizon.
Baglio Oneto dei Principi di San Lorenzo
Marsala · 5★ · $$$
A wine estate manor above the Stagnone lagoon
Check availabilitySciacca and the south coast
Verdura Resort, a Rocco Forte Hotel occupies 230 hectares on the southern coast with two golf courses, a spa, several restaurants and nearly two kilometres of private shoreline. It is the largest resort in Sicily and it is an hour from the Valley of the Temples.
Verdura Resort, a Rocco Forte Hotel
Sciacca, south coast · 5★ · $$$$
Two golf courses and two kilometres of private shore
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The small B&Bs and palazzo apartments across central Palermo are excluded, and the city has a very large supply of them in genuinely grand buildings. They are guest houses and apartments rather than hotels.
What to do
Do the Arab-Norman circuit properly: the Cappella Palatina inside the Norman Palace, the cathedral, San Giovanni degli Eremiti with its red domes, the Zisa, and then Monreale and Cefalù on separate days.
Eat street food and be brave about it. Panelle, arancine, sfincione, and pane ca' meusa, which is spleen in a bun and is the test.
Go to a market in the morning, ideally Ballarò, and note that these are food markets for residents rather than a visitor attraction.
See the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento, two hours south, which has Greek temples in better condition than most of Greece.
Take the cable car up to Erice in the afternoon and eat the almond pastries made by the town's bakeries.
Practical notes
Palermo's airport is 45 minutes west of the city with European traffic; Trapani and Catania are the alternatives. Trains run along both coasts; a car is needed for the interior and the west.
April, May, June, September and October are ideal. July and August are very hot inland. Winter is mild on the coast and the cities are at their best.
Palermo traffic is genuinely difficult. If you are driving, park once and walk.
Every hotel bookable in western Sicily
Questions people actually ask
What is Arab-Norman?
A twelfth-century Sicilian synthesis: Norman rulers employing Arab craftsmen and Byzantine mosaicists. Nine buildings are UNESCO-listed.
Palermo or Taormina?
Taormina for polish and the volcano view. Palermo for markets, mosaics and a city that is not curated.
Is Palermo difficult?
Chaotic rather than dangerous, with normal city precautions. The reward is a place that has not been smoothed for visitors.
How many nights?
Five. Three in Palermo and two in the west or the south.