Palermo infos 16 11 06

(agg. il 16 11 06)Palermo is busy, interesting and full of sights, but it can also be a bit intimidating. It’s the city which most represents Sicily, and it is the home of the most important tourist attractions in the Region.

Palermo is Sicily’s regional capital, and is a busy port city situated on the north-western coast of the island. In the Middle Ages, Palermo was one of Europe’s leading cities. There is some fine architecture to be admired, as well as good museums, churches, markets and restaurants.

Among the most important tourist attractions of Palermo are the city’s Norman Cathedral and the Arab-Norman Royal Palace (or Palazzo dei Normanni), the former royal palace added, and altered over the centuries, and now the seat of the local parliament. There you can visit the Cappella Palatina, a beautiful chapel containing rich mosaics. Other sights include La Martorana, a splendid Norman church with a Baroque front, the imposing Teatro Massimo and the "Vucciria" food market.

Plays acted by marionettes are a locale tradition, and you can visit the Puppet Museum (Museo delle Marionette) to learn more about the history of the art. The Museums one can visit are: the Galleria Regionale (Regional Gallery) in Palazzo Abatellis and the lovely Museo Archeologico Regionale (the Archaeological Museum), which contains many exhibits from the ancient sites in Sicily.

For those with more specialist interests (and strong nerves) it’s worth making a trip to the macabre catacombs of the Convento dei Capuccini lined with the dead.

Palermo is one of the most important cities of Italy. It is rich in terms of monuments and architectural buildings.

They represent a civilisation made up of different traditions, in fact Palermo has been home to many different cultures over the centuries: Arabians, Normans, Byzantines and others

My school is called “Regina Margherita” and it is in the centre of the city, in corso Vittorio Emanuele which, together with via Maqueda, represents the historical heart of the city.

The Cathedral represents the expansion of Norman architecture throughout the 11^th century, but it doesn’t lack in Islamic and Byzantine influences.

The Cathedral was built in 1185, it was enlarged both in the 13^th and 14^th century, when the portico with its trefoil tympanum was added and the interior was embellished with the chapels of the sacrament and S. Rosalia and her relics, with the works of the artists Gaggini, Laurana and Serpotta, and the imposing Royal chapels of Federico II, Enrico VI, Ruggero II and Costanza d’Altavilla.

The Royal Palace and the Palatina chapel are other proofs of the Norman presence. They were constructed at the beginning of the 12^th century and their beauty is enhanced by the rich mosaic decorations and large frescoes.