Bella Sicilia - Palermo and Cefalu

I have been wanting to visit Sicily for a number of years now, but I needed enough time in our itinerary to really see a lot of what the island has to offer. We ended up spending 9 days total in Sicily, which only really scratches the surface, but I felt like it gave us a great taste of some of the highlights.

Our itinerary included:
2 nights in Palermo
3 nights in the Aeolian Islands
2 nights in Taormina
1 night in Ragusa Ibla
1 night in Catania

PALERMO

We started in Palermo, and to be honest, I wasn't sure if we just skip Palermo and go straight to Cefalu, but I'm glad we saw the city. Our timings didn't work out, but I think it would have been really interesting if we'd done a free walking tour in this city, because everywhere you look, there were interesting monuments and squares that I'm sure have interesting stories behind them. I also believe there'd be an interesting mob background, which we never learned. We stayed two nights here and spent one of our days doing a day trip to Cefalu, which was an absolute highlight. The other afternoon we spent wandering around the city and having Aperitivo at the Port. It was a wonderful afternoon spent people watching.

Where to stay:
My big tip for this town, especially travelling with a group, would be to base yourself near the train station - because taxis are expensive and add up. The taxi drivers rarely run a meter and you're at the mercy of what they decide you need to pay. So convenience is important here. In saying that, where we did stay Hotel Politeama was absolutely beautiful, with a great rooftop dinner area and right at the end of a stunning pedestrian street with heaps of shops, bars and restaurant. I don't regret it - but I do think the convenience of being near a train station would have helped. In saying that, there is a direct bus line outside this hotel that goes direct to Mondello Beach (and a ticket booth next to the hotel), so if Mondello Beach is on your itinerary, this hotel is a great location to start. I did use this website to choose our location, and it might also be helpful for you to choose what you're looking for.

What to eat:
Well, we're in Sicily after all - so the two big recommendations are cannoli and granita and brioche - not necessarily in that order. You wouldn't think granita brioche would work as a breakfast food - but don't knock it until you try it. It was weirdly delicious. And of course, we had to stop into the famous I Segreti Del Chiostro (which apparently created the cannolo) and can confirm, it was delicious. Maybe slightly overprice (6 Euro) and too large for me to finish - but delicious.

CEFALU

We day tripped it to Cefalu from Palermo, which is an hour train ride away - and while it would have been awesome to spend a night here, I feel like a day trip was enough to see Cefalu and its beauty. My brother said it was his favourite place of the trip so far, so you know it's got to be good.

My first tip when visiting Cefalu is to book your train tickets online (or at the station) at least half an hour in advance, because we arrived 15 minutes before the train we wanted to take, and it wouldn't let us purchase tickets - the train was apparently too full. So we had to wait an hour until the next one to kick start our beach day.

We started by exploring the main shopping street, where we stopped off for some arancini from Sfrigola and a Aperol granita from nearby. The arancini shop is very Insta-famous these days, but it was actually very nice arancini - so I guess it's popular for a reason.

We kept meandering down the beautiful streets until we hit the opening to the beach at the point of Cefalu. This is where you get your tourist pictures looking back at the town and the sea. You have the option to pull up on the free beach or pay for an umbrella if you want to stop and take a dip in the sea.

We decided for a quick dip and then moved on walk around the point and on the other side of Cefalu, there is a place called Calette Reef Club, where we parked up for the afternoon. We paid 50 Euro for the bed and we got food and drink service while we sunbathed, and then (for those of us brave enough) took a dip in the sea. There was no beach here, but there were entrances to the water via a ladder. So if you're going for a swim, you're going all in, or not at all. In late May, it was still very nippy water - so I opted to work on my European tan on land instead.

As the sun dipped behind the mountain, we taxied back into the main spiaggia libera (free beach) and parked up at one of the restaurants where we ate muscles and drank Aperols. We watched the sun set over the water before catching the last train back at 9.30pm back to Palermo. It was a huge day, but Cefalu is a stunning spot and well-worth a visit. I think the time of year we went also helped, because the tourist numbers were not too overwhelming and we managed to get seats for 6 people everywhere we went - I think in July and August the number of people might change that. But it's still absolutely stunning town that I highly recommend.