As I organize my itinerary for Palermo, I am trying to decide if I have one too many days, You all have great ideas and would love to hear what you think. It looks like a great city to explore, but I am wondering if I should take one day off to stay in Rome.....Day 1: check in and wander around
https://www.museodellemarionette.it/en

Day 2:
Cappella Palatina /Palazzo dei Normanni
Cattedrale di Palermo
Teatro Massimo
Oratorio del SS. Rosario in Santa Cita

Day 3: Cefalu day trip (full or half day)
Day 4: Monreale - public transportation or shuttle transfer
Day 5 more of Palermo. Or Erice

Any suggestions, additions, omissions or votes on taking off a day for Rome? Much appreciated

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to answer your question. There is WAY more to see in Palermo than what you list ... but only you can decide what you want to visit. And whether to shift a day to Rome also depends on a lot of other things, including how long you plan to spend there and what you hope to do while there. As an additional consideration, for most of us, getting to Rome is easier than getting to anywhere in Sicily, so a return visit to Rome might be more feasible than a return visit to Sicily.

Good luck with your decision!

That’s just a must do list.
Rome is so enchanting, but good point about getting back to Rome sooner than Palermo. Trouble with travelling is that I don’t want to miss anything, but I want to leave room in my itinerary to explore and wander.

My approach -- which might not work for you -- is to make sure I have a plan that allows me to see everything I want to see, but to toss the plan out if I want to do so once on the ground. At least I'll know what I'm missing if I do that! And I take time to explore and wander in the evenings or at other times when things I might want to visit are closed.

Yes! Exactly. I love the adventure and often, it is those adventures that make for good memories. I asked the question above because often people come upon great places that might not be in the guide books. Years ago, someone mentioned a small museum in Paris. I jotted it down and it turned out that the scroll from “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac was on display. It was a great find and some lovely Fodorite had mentioned it. That is why I love these forums.

While in Sicily, I had some wonderful and memorably unexpected moments of the kind no one can plan, like seeing a small group of men marching near the Quattro Canti in Palermo while bearing an effigy and playing musical instruments and seeing Mt. Etna erupt while in Enna. Everything else I did while in Sicily had been covered in The Rough Guide (and in some cases, in other guidebooks, too -- IIIRC, I used six for that trip; they vary enormously in coverage). Of course, no guidebook can prepare one for the magnificence of some of the sites or the taste of pistachio gelato or the power of seeing a performance in Siracusa's Greek theater.

the pistachio gelato is on my “to eat” list 😀
Thank you !

Has anyone done a market tour (guide) that they would recommend?

If you know when you're going to Palermo, you should check out various websites to see "what's on" when you're there. Being an avid concert-goer, I did just that before we visited Palermo this past September. I found out that Umberto Tozzi, an italian pop and rock singer and composer, would be playing at the Teatro di Verdura, an outdoor theater in Palermo. Of course, I knew who he was, and that he had written (and sang) the original "Gloria" that was later translated into English and made popular by Laura Branigan in 1982. Tried to get tickets online, but due to the safety guards for online purchases from overseas, couldn't complete the transaction. I went to the Massimo opera house and they told me where I could purchase tickets (a block or two away), which I did. We then had to hire a cab to get us there and back (all cash), but I have to tell you, it was the highlight of our stay in Palermo. Mostly Italians, but we ended up sitting next to two young Americans, and it was such local fun. And Tozzi, who is now 72 and not ambulatory, rocked the place . . . he was amazing!

As for the "unexpected moments" mentioned by kja, we sort of missed, but did not miss Cefalu. We arrived on an overnight train from Milan, and due to a wildfire on the tracks, all trains stopped at Cefalu, where (after 20 hours on the train) we had to wait another 8 hours so the road cleared. We were supposed to get into Palermo at 5 p.m., and ended up getting in at 1 a.m. The cab to the hotel introduced us to Palermo life . . . going strong in outdoor cafes at that hour on a pedestrian street that cabs DO go down, and chairs had to be moved to make way for us!