Palermo, Italy

Palermo has been Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Spanish and Italian, and unusually the layers did not replace one another so much as combine. The cathedral has Arabic verses carved on a column, Norman arches and a Baroque dome. The Palatine Chapel pairs a Byzantine mosaic ceiling with an Islamic wooden muqarnas roof, commissioned by a Norman king.

Monreale, 10 km inland, is the single best thing in reach of the port. Its cathedral interior is covered in roughly 6,400 square metres of gold-ground Byzantine mosaic — among the largest surviving schemes anywhere, and more overwhelming in person than photographs manage.

The street markets are the other reason to come. Ballarò and Vucciria are working food markets rather than tourist attractions, loud and crowded, and the street food — panelle, arancine, and spleen sandwiches for the brave — is a serious tradition rather than a novelty.

Palermo is noticeably less polished than the northern Italian ports, and that is largely the point. A group that has done Rome and Florence will find this the most distinctive Italian day on the itinerary.

Hot and dry, 30–34°C in July and August, and hotter inland. The scirocco, a wind off North Africa, can push temperatures higher still and carry fine dust.