SHORE
EXCURSION: INSIDER'S PALERMO TOUR: 8
Hours
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Palermo Private Tours Includes: Private guide, private
transportation, taxes, tolls and parking.
Not Included: Entrance tickets to sites you decide to enter.
See Palermo through the eyes of your local
expert tour guide who proudly calls Palermo home.
This special shore excursion of Palermo showcases
some of the most unusual monuments in the world.
You will start at Piazza Pretoria with its
beautiful Renaissance fountain originally built
for a villa near Florence: a unique sight given
its location in the heart of an Arab-Norman
city. You will continue your stroll of central
Palermo, otherwise known as Quattro Canti,
to visit the town cathedral. This magnificent
building was erected on the site of the old
cathedral, transformed into a mosque by the
Arabs and re-consecrated as a Christian church
by the Norman kings. The nearby Church of La
Martorana weds two unlikely eras of architecture:
the severe 12th century Norman and the frivolous
Baroque styles. Then prepare yourself for a
rather shocking sight at the Capuchin Catacombs:
8,000 mummified bodies dressed in their Sunday
best clothes propped up against the catacomb
walls. Next, you’ll visit Zisa Castle, commissioned
by the Norman King William I yet built by Muslim
architects.
In the afternoon, you will drive to the town
of Bagheria, famous for its Baroque villas.
You will visit the most unusual of the bunch,
built by the Prince of Palagonia, who was obsessed
with monsters and mirrors.
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