Palermo

Palermo needs 2 days: touring the Norman Palace and its Palatine Chapel, with golden 12th-century Byzantine mosaics, on one, and visiting Monreale Cathedral, on the city's outskirts, with one of the largest Byzantine mosaic cycles in the world, on the other. April-June and September-October bring the mildest weather. It's inexpensive for an Italian regional capital. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily under Norman rule in the 12th century, and that mix of Arab, Byzantine and Norman influences -the so-called Arab-Norman style, a UNESCO World Heritage Site- shows in its architecture and also in its street food, with Arab-rooted dishes like arancini or fish couscous.