Cefalù — centro e spiaggia (in treno)

The story

Cefalù lies an hour by train from Palermo, on the Tyrrhenian coast, at the foot of the Rocca, the headland that towers over it. Roger II founded the cathedral in 1131, according to tradition to fulfil a vow after surviving a storm at sea.

The twin towers of the façade and the Norman forms enclose, in the apse, the mosaic Christ Pantocrator completed in 1148: it is among the earliest and most intense in Norman Sicily. Since 2015 the cathedral has been part of the UNESCO site together with Palermo and Monreale.

The medieval centre keeps its lavatoio, the wash-house where the water of the Cefalino river runs through stone basins beneath a vault, and on the Rocca stand the so-called Temple of Diana, from pre-Greek times, and the walls of the castle.

Why it is worth it

The cathedral appears suddenly at the end of the corso, with its two towers and the Rocca behind, and in the apse the Pantocrator looks at you with a humanity you will not find at Monreale. Then there are the lanes, the wash-house with its cold water, the seafront with fishermen’s houses dropping straight onto the beach. If you have the legs and the time, climb the Rocca: from up there the town looks like a model.