On a week-plus trip around Sicily in September of 2021, we started with a day and a half in Palermo. Ended up visiting four components of the serial site: the catedral, the royal palace, and the churches of San Cataldo and Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio. San Giovanni degli Eremiti, the other centrally located component, was on the list, but my information about its opening hours proved to be faulty - it closes at 1pm on Sundays, while I expected it to be open for another half an hour, and the gates were already locked up at 12:55.

The cathedral is clearly the most majestic site in all of Palermo, a wonderful mix of architectural styles. The interior is surprisingly relatively subdued (especially compared to the Baroque decadence of other churches found in town that are not part of the WH site - try Chiesa del Gesù, for instance). The great church is free to enter; for extra fee, you can visit the royal tombs, the treasury, and the roof terrace. I highly recommend the latter, while the other parts can be skipped. The cheapest combo ticket that includes the roof costs €7.

The royal palace is not exactly grand as far as the exterior goes, just quite big (upon returning home I realized that I did not take any reasonable shot of its façade, which suggests that it did not catch my eye as worth a shot). The royal apartments inside offer a few interesting spaces, somewhat diminished by the fact that they occasionally double as governmental offices. Nothing too breathtaking, to be sure, until you come to Sala di Ruggero and its remarkable ceiling mosaics. I lingered disproportionate amount of time in that one room.

And then there is the main attraction, Capella Palatina, which is altogether jaw-dropping for the amount and quality of its Byzantine mosaic decorations. This is one place where you may have to wait to get in during the busiest hours; the line in our case was about 25 minutes long.

I bought timed-entry tickets to the palace online a few weeks ahead of our visit, expecting covid-era limitations on the number of visitors allowed in. Walking towards the entrance, I noticed a long line of people in front of the ticket booth (which is located in the park in front of the building); it is possible that was only for a future entry, but most likely you can actually again buy tickets on the spot if you so prefer.

San Cataldo and Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio are located side by side on Piazza Bellini in the focal center of the historic city core. San Cataldo is small and relatively bare in the interior, and accessible for a small fee. Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio is an active church, and therefore free to enter, although the nave was roped off on account of upcoming service when we stepped in. It offers a significantly more decorated interior; the mosaics here are just a tiny notch below those inside the Palatine Chapel.

The two churches obviously do not take too much time to see. At the cathedral, unless you decide to go to the roof, you can probably get your fill of it in under half an hour; the roof adds up to 45 minutes, depending on the wait and your desire to linger. The palace can be seen in under two hours, including the wait to enter the chapel. These four points of interest (as well as San Giovanni) are all located within the historic core of Palermo, reachable on foot in under 15 minutes from practically anywhere in the city center, and within less than 15 minutes from each other.

Zisa Palace and Ammiraglio Bridge are only another 15-20 minutes further out from the historic center (albeit in opposite directions) but each would be too much of a target-driven walk and time allowance for me to impose on my wife in our relatively short time in Palermo. And neither Monreale nor Cefalù made the final cut in our Sicilian itinerary, so they have been left for another time.