Half-day Tour of Monreale, Palermo Market and Palermo City Center
Palermo, Italy
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Trip Type: Half-day Tours
Duration: 4 hours
This tour will give you the opportunity to visit Monreale's cathedral, world renowned for Arab-Norman golden mosaics and included in the Unesco World heritage sites. A walking tour of Palermo city center will then show you monuments of very different age and style and a lively 1000 years old open air market, where you will have the opportunity to taste typical local products. This tour will be operated as half day tour from Palermo on Mondays.
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This tour will give you the opportunity to visit Monreale's cathedral, world renowned for Arab-Norman golden mosaics and included in the Unesco World heritage sites. A walking tour of Palermo city center will then show you monuments of very different age and style and a lively 1000 years old open air market, where you will have the opportunity to taste typical local products. This tour will be operated as half day tour from Palermo on Mondays.The tour will start from our meeting point located in Palermo, where the driver will pick you up. A short drive (approximately 30 minutes) will take you to Monreale, to see where the Arab-Norman art and architecture reached the pinnacle of his glory with the Duomo (admission fees are not included). Launched in 1174 by William II, it represents scenes from the Old and New Testaments, all in golden mosaics. We will provide a licensed guide if the group will be minimum 6 people; for groups from 1 to 5, the visit inside Monreale Dome will be independent.
After the visit of the Dome (approximately 30 minutes), transfer to Palermo and walking tour of the city center. The walking tour will start with the lively Ballarò market, a place overflowing with beautiful fresh fish, local vegetables and cheeses. Originating from the era when Sicily was occupied by the Moors, this 1000 years old market has run much in the same manner for centuries. It has strong Arab influences, resembling an eastern souk, and these influences are also evident in the merchandise itself. Next to mounds of ricotta and caciocavallo cheeses, barrels of olives and fat slabs of swordfish sit saffron and other spices, as well as sacks of beans and gorgeous indigenous fruit and local vegetables. Here you have the opportunity to taste a typical palermitano dish, such as the famous Panelle (a thin paste of crushed ceci/garbanzo beans rolled into sheets, fried and served in pizza-like slices).
Then we walk to Piazza Preoria and the famous "Four Corners" converge in a quartet of Baroque palaces from the climax of the Spanish rule dating from 1560. The short stroll will continue through Via Maqueda with the external view of Massimo Theater (The Opera House) and Politeama Theater. The tour will end in Piazza Ruggero Settimo.
After the visit of the Dome (approximately 30 minutes), transfer to Palermo and walking tour of the city center. The walking tour will start with the lively Ballarò market, a place overflowing with beautiful fresh fish, local vegetables and cheeses. Originating from the era when Sicily was occupied by the Moors, this 1000 years old market has run much in the same manner for centuries. It has strong Arab influences, resembling an eastern souk, and these influences are also evident in the merchandise itself. Next to mounds of ricotta and caciocavallo cheeses, barrels of olives and fat slabs of swordfish sit saffron and other spices, as well as sacks of beans and gorgeous indigenous fruit and local vegetables. Here you have the opportunity to taste a typical palermitano dish, such as the famous Panelle (a thin paste of crushed ceci/garbanzo beans rolled into sheets, fried and served in pizza-like slices).
Then we walk to Piazza Preoria and the famous "Four Corners" converge in a quartet of Baroque palaces from the climax of the Spanish rule dating from 1560. The short stroll will continue through Via Maqueda with the external view of Massimo Theater (The Opera House) and Politeama Theater. The tour will end in Piazza Ruggero Settimo.
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