A visitor can get a great deal from Palermo Cathedral before entering a ticketed area. The exterior is an attraction in its own right, with a layered façade, towers and a generous setting that makes it possible to look from several angles.
If time or money allows only a limited number of paid interiors in Palermo, the Palatine Chapel deserves serious consideration. Its gold-ground…
The cost of seeing Palermo's architectural details is often nothing more than a few extra minutes. Roof tiles, cornices and weathered façades are…
Palermo's week starts with the Festa dei Morti on November 2, when the city's children wake up to presents said to come from their dead relatives. It…
Sirmione sits at the end of a thin peninsula pushing into the south of Lake Garda. One road goes in. About 8,000 people live there, and the town…
The cheapest way to see Venice without the crowd is to sleep there. Overnight guests don't pay the €5 or €10 day-tripper fee, and after the last…
Walk out of Catania's cathedral square, past the elephant fountain, and look for the stairs going down by the fountain of Amenano. The noise reaches…
If you've rented an apartment in Italy in the last few years, you probably met the key box. A small grey safe bolted to a railing or a door frame, a…
Taormina was famous long before television found it. Goethe came through, D.H. Lawrence lived here, the Greek theatre has framed Etna for two…
Venice ran its day-tripper fee for the third year in 2026, and by now it's simply part of the trip. Sixty paid days this year, up from 54 in 2025 and…
