I've wanted to go to Sicily for a number of years. And when the opportunity arose to visit Palermo we jumped at the chance.

Palermo is a vast city that stretches across a good portion of the Western- north coast of the Island and is the political centre for Sicily.  It has a wealth of history and beautiful architecture that reflects the various different ruling civilisations that have called it home over the centuries. 

It is such a shame therefore that a large number of these building have been left to ruin, with a very large number being boarded up/ rooves caved in and just in general states of disrepair.  What were once beautiful centres of commerce and community, left to crumble as resources are spent elsewhere.

As with most cities, there are exceptions.  And Palermo spends the cash where the tourists go, and here are a few highlights:

The Piazza Vigilena/ Quattro Canti (four Kings) is a square in the centre of the city with symmetrical fountains in each of the corners, adorned by a King above.  It is considered to be the centre of historic Palermo, and is a great place to start any walking tours of the city.

Just along from the Quattro Canti, is the Fontana Pretoria (Pretoria fountain). Originally built in Florence, it was bought and transferred to Palermo in 1574.  Also known as the 'square of shame' because of the nudity of the statues that adorn the square.

Where would an ancient city be without it's gates, to the North of Quattro Canti is the Porta Nuova which marks the entrance to the old city from the south-west. Unfortunately as we were on a road train tour, we were unable to get a good photo!...

A walk along via Vittorio Emanuele later, bypassing interesting streets:

And some very old and interesting trees in the Piazza Marina

We made our way to the very impressive Porta Felice where a new children's playground nearby helped stretch the kids legs, before grabbing a gelato to watch the sun go down on our second day in this awesome city.

to be continued...