The most beautiful place? There is not
Palermo (gro) What is the best place in Palermo? Wrongly asked: the best place does not exist in this city. There are just too many wonderful places, cozy nooks and picturesque corners, and after all, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you just want to find it “kind of nice” the double square Castellnuovo/Politeama is perfect. But Villa Bonanno, with its huge palm trees and the old royal palace (Palazzo Reale) in the background, is possibly even more picturesque, not to mention Piazza Verdi with Italy’s largest opera house, the Teatro Massimo. And then there are the beautiful smaller squares: Piazza Quattro Canti, for instance, where via Maqueda intersects with Corso Vittorio Emmanuele at right angles, dividing the Centro Storico, the historic old town, into four quarters.
Where the Emir of Palermo once commanded the island.
Other lovers of Palermo particularly appreciate the Piazza della Kalsa, because it is there that one can remember so well the glorious Arab times when the Emir of Palermo commanded over the island. The best, the most beautiful place to eat for many, for professors, avvocati and students, artisans, coachmen and for housewives who are finally taken out again by their grateful spouses – the Piazza Marina. There you can enjoy Sicilian delicacies from chicken to lobster, if there is room even in the evening twilight shade of Palazzo Steri, whose original owner was once beheaded by the Spaniards for insubordination in front of his own house.
Now is the best time to get to know the city.
Now, in winter, which in Sicily is like our spring, is the best time to get to know the city of Palermo, once counted among the most beautiful cities in the world (and also Catania, Syracuse, Trapani and Marsala). In the hot months from June to the end of September, longer forays through the city can become a hassle. But not now, not even in the huge Palermo, which stretches as a city band for 20 kilometers along the north coast from Brancaccio to Sferracavallo. A dense network of public transport buses provides a convenient and very inexpensive means of transport for individual stages.
Break at Caffè Spinnato in via Principe Bellmonte.
In the center, you should head west on via Maqueda, from Piazza Giulio Cesare (the station square) to Piazza Castelnuovo/Politeama, past the Teatro Massimo, where the Maqueda changes name and becomes via Rugiero Settimo. There, shortly after on the right, via Principe Bellmonte beckons, a piece of pedestrian zone with the legendary Caffè Spinnato, where every day on reasonably mild evenings, even in winter, a pianist entertains guests with discreet tunes outdoors.