Piazza del Duomo

Piazza del Duomo Review

At the heart of Piazza del Duomo, which is closed to traffic, stands an elephant carved out of lava, balancing an Egyptian obelisk—the city's informal mascot, called "u Liotru," the Sicilian pronunciation of Heliodorus, an 8th-century sorcerer tied by legend to the origins of the statue. The piazza shines from a 21st-century renovation. From here you can look way down the long, straight Via Garibaldi to see a black-and-white-striped fortress and entrance to the city, the Porta Garibaldi.