Monreale - bus from Palermo?
 

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has any info on public transport options from Palermo to Monreale.

How long is the bus ride - and where do they leave from?
Thanks for any help you can give ...

Steve

Hi,
I copied this line from my Sicily trip report from last summer:

local bus (#389 from Piazza Independenza) to Monreale to see the Norman duomo there. The bus drops you off right in front of the duomo (and is the same pick-up location to return to Palermo).

Click on my screen name and look for "Sicily Trip Report" if you want to see any other part of the report.

Hope this helps.

The bus ride can take as much as 30-45 minutes, because Corso Calatafimi, the old Spanish road which connects Palermo with Monreale, gets extremely crowded during daytime, and there are lots of stores and shops lining the route.

Along the way (on your left facing Monreale), you'll catch a glimpse of "LA CUBA", the Arabic Pleasure Palace from the 12th Century, which can be seen from up close. You can also get off the bus at Via Pindemonte and visit the Capuchin Convent, with its mummified corpses lining the walls of the underground passageways.

Bus 389 departs from Piazza Indipendenza, the BACK SIDE of the Palazzo dei Normanni. It runs every 20 minutes or so.

Where is a good place to have lunch in Monreale?

GAC probably knows things better from personal experience, but here is the Web site of a restaurant close to the Duomo in Monreale that is recommended by the Veronelli restaurant guide (which is only in Italian; the Web site is also in English):

www.tavernadelpavone.it

The other, really fancy restaurant 3 km from Monreale recommended by Veronelli and where John Paul II has eaten is closed, would you believe, from July 1 to September 10. They evidently make so much money in the other 10 months of the year that they can afford to take more than two months' vacation...

Thanks so much, Eloise.

Now that's what I call a coincidence!

I was just coming here to give you the names and addresses of the restaurants recommended by the Gambero Rosso restaurant guide, and found your brief word.

They are all in Palermo, none in Monreale.

I haven't eaten at any of them, but the Gambero Rosso description of my favourite restaurant in Siracusa is quite accurate, so maybe these too are valid recommendations:

Bye Bye Blues
via del Garofalo, 23 90149 Palermo

Firriato de l'Hotel Principe di Villafranca
via G. Turrisi Colonna, 12 90141 Palermo

Grand Gourmet
c.so Pisani, 30 90100 Palermo

Osteria dei Vespri
p.zza Croce dei Vespri, 6 90133 Palermo

Ristorantino
p.le A. De Gasperi, 19 90146 Palermo

Sotto Sopra
via XII Gennaio, 1 90139 Palermo

One is in the Hotel Principe di Villafranca, and another, I unfortunately don't remember which one, is close to the Palazzo dei Normanni, which you will probably visit for the Cappella Palatina.

Good luck!

GAC, is this the same La Cuba? http://www.lacuba.com/

Some locals that we met in Palermo took us there one night, it was an interesting place to go at night.

Probably not, but just curious.

AP: I had to laugh when I opened the site you cited! LA CUBA which I refer to in Palermo is an Arabic architectural landmark from the Middle Ages, and not a trendy nightclub! But I suppose it was a clever idea to have opened a nightclub in Palermo with the same name. Perhaps someone else in town will soon open "LA CUBOLA", another Palermo Arabic structure which is closeby LA CUBA, along Corso Calatafimi on the road to Monreale.

Steve,

Watch your wallet when you are on the Palermo bus to Monreale -- apparently a popular place for pickpockets!

Enjoy!

Also take lots of coins to illuminate the interior so you can really appreciate the mosaics.

A short walk from the cathedrale in Monreale is a nice restaurant called Dietro l'Angolo, Via Chiasso Piave, 5. It has a large veranda overlooking Palermo, Mondello and the sea. It takes a little work to find it, but it's worth it.

The only reason I thought it may be what you were talking about is because the structure that the club is Arab-Norman.

I meant "is in." I wish this site had the edit feature like Slowtalk!

Thanks to everyone for all the tips :)

Steve