Sicily’s splendid capital

Palermo is "a challenging place for the timorous" - "hot, noisy, crumbling and borderline anarchic", says Philip Jacobson in the Sunday Times.

Yet the Sicilian capital is also "one of the most vibrant and rewarding of Italian cities": it spent 3,000 years under the rule of great civilisations - from Phoenician and Greek to Arab and Norman - which has left "an astonishingly rich architectural legacy, not to mention a splendidly varied cuisine".

It is currently undergoing a "renaissance", with renovation projects transforming areas damaged by WWII bombs and then left to rot by corrupt local officials. But while newly restored sites like the opera house are splendid, the "jewel" of the city remains the Palazzo dei Normanni, with its "breathtaking" Byzantine mosaics.

Kirker Holidays (0207 593 2283) has three nights in Palermo from £593 incl. flights. ·