Sizilianisches Puppentheater, Mafia-Erbe & Sizilianische Identität
The 'Opera dei Pupi' (the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Sicilian puppet theatre tradition — the theatre of the armoured knights ('pupi' — the large, elaborately crafted marionettes operated by the 'puparo' from above via rods and strings) performing the cycles of the medieval chivalric romances (the 'Orlando Furioso' of Ariosto, the 'Chanson de Roland')) is the most distinctive traditional performing art of Palermo; combined with the understanding of the Sicilian Mafia (the 'Cosa Nostra' — its origins, its culture, and its devastating impact on Sicilian society, documented in the Falcone and Borsellino Museum), it forms the most complex portrait of Sicilian identity.
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Opera dei Pupi — UNESCO-Listed Sicilian Puppet Theatre
Opera dei Pupi (Sicilian puppet theatre, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage 2008) is the traditional performance art of Sicily — the armored metal-and-wood marionettes (pupi, 80–100cm tall, 8–15kg, operated by long rods rather than strings) perform the chansons de geste (medieval French stories of Charlemagne and the Paladins fighting the Saracens); the Museo Internazionale delle Marionette Antonio Pasqualino (Via Butera 1, Kalsa, €5) has 3,500 puppets from the world's traditions; the Cuticchio and Argento families are the two principal surviving pupi dynasties.
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The Sicilian Mafia — History and Hollywood Reality
The Sicilian Cosa Nostra (the criminal organization founded in western Sicily in the mid-19th century as a response to the breakdown of central authority) is the original 'Mafia' from which all others take their name — Palermo was the site of the major anti-Mafia trials: the Maxi Trial (1986–1987, prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, 474 Mafia members convicted simultaneously), and the assassinations of Falcone (May 23, 1992, Capaci motorway bombing) and Paolo Borsellino (July 19, 1992, Via d'Amelio car bomb); the Via Notarbartolo and Via D'Amelio are marked with memorial plaques.
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Associazione Libera — Anti-Mafia Memory Tourism
Libera (the national anti-Mafia organization founded 1995 by Don Luigi Ciotti) operates the 'Libera Terra' brand (food products from land confiscated from the Mafia, sold in Palermo's Feltrinelli bookshop and international outlets) — the No Mafia Memorial (Piazza Rivoluzione, Palermo, apartment converted to exhibition space documenting Mafia victims and the anti-Mafia movement) is the most direct tourist engagement with this history; Palermo's Piazza della Memoria (May 23 each year, Falcone commemoration) draws thousands.
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Teatro Massimo — The Operatic Set of The Godfather III
Teatro Massimo (Piazza Verdi, 1897, Giovanni Battista Filippo Basile and Ernesto Basile, the largest opera house in Italy and third-largest in Europe, closed for restoration 1974–1997 — 23 years, the longest closure of a major opera house in history) is Palermo's architectural centrepiece — the Godfather Part III's final scenes (the assassination of Michael Corleone's son on the opera house steps) were filmed here in 1990; guided tours (€8, daily 10am–5:30pm, every 30 minutes in English) cover the neoclassical interior and the opera house's turbulent history.
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Ballarò Market — Palermo's Most Chaotic Food Experience
Ballarò Market (Piazza Ballarò and surrounding streets, Albergheria district, adjacent to the Arab-Norman cathedral, daily 7am–2pm, the oldest and largest street market in Palermo, documented since the 10th century) is the definitive Palermo street food destination — the vendors sell fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and street food from temporary structures that convert a residential quarter into a market twice a day; the street food includes arancina (plural: arancine — rice balls with ragù, €1.50), panino con panelle (chickpea fritter sandwich, €1.50), and the bitter-orange granita (€1).
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Palazzo dei Normanni and Cappella Palatina — Arab-Norman Masterwork
Palazzo dei Normanni (Piazza del Parlamento 1, 9th-century Arab fortress, expanded by Norman King Roger II 1132–1140 into a royal palace, the oldest royal residence in Europe in continuous use, now the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly) houses the Cappella Palatina (1130–1143, the most concentrated example of Arab-Norman-Byzantine architecture in the world) — the chapel's mosaics (the ceiling in carved Arabic honeycomb muqarnas, the walls in Byzantine gold mosaics, the floor in Cosmatesque opus sectile marble) represent the synthesis of three civilizations under Norman rule; €12 entry, Tuesday–Saturday 8:15am–5:45pm.