A friend and I will be traveling to Sicily next March. We will be flying into Palermo and will have 1 1/2 days, on our own, prior to a tour. I have read some of the Sicily postings and have gotten great info. I have not seen any mention of the town of Cefalu, which is a place we want to visit.

Is it possible to visit this location from Palermo by train or by bus. Any info would be appreciated. Ciao!!mhm

Yes there are frequent trains (two or three an hour) which run direct and take between 45 minutes and just over an hour.

Mercy, although your time is limited, try to have lunch in Cefalu - there are wonderful seaside restaurants! As Neopolitan said -trains are running frequently.

Cefalu also has a very nice cathedral. The mosaic of Christ on the ceiling is outstanding. There are also Sicilian puppet shows on certain days of the week in the season (although I do not know about March). Palermo has them as well and you MUST see one.

Mercy-
I was in Palermo just this past week, and want to suggest something really wonderful in Palermo you can do if you're interested in Puppets.
The Argento family is one of the great puppet families of Sicily. The father, Vincenzo, is the 4th generation of his family to carry on the tradition, and he has his studio (laboritorio) just near the Cathedral. This is where he creates the puppets.
Then they have a theater where they give the shows just a 2 minutes walk away. It's beautifuI. I spent time with them and it was quite an amazing experience, they showed me the theater backstage before the show and Vincenzo showed me how to work the exquisite tiny puppet of Charlemagne I bought from him.
There are many puppet shows of course, but this family is special. I first encountered them when they were invited by the Museum of Metropolitan Art in NYC to present their work.
Anyway, here's the information, if you are interested.
Opera dei Pupi
Vincenzo Argento e Figli (and wife Teresa)
445 Via Vittorio Emanuele (studio/shop)
1 Via Pietro Novelli (theater)
Both just near the Cathedral
Tel 091-6113680 or 3391322779
If trying to attend a show-call first, a minimum of 10 people need to show up.

Also- a tip for arriving in Palermo- there is an airport bus (ASP) which will take you directly into the city, costing 5 Euro- you pay on board. It stops at The Central Train Station and is a good way to go. A taxi will cost 40 Euro.

With only 1.5 days in Palermo I wouldn't bother visiting Cefalu. We spent a week in Palermo, loved it, didn't have time to see all we'd have liked to & want to go back. It's one of the most fascinating places I've ever been. OTOH I didn't much care for Cefalu - there's really not much there apart from the cathedral and I found it generally a bit depressing.

One and a half days isn't much time, but I do think Cefalu is worth it. We didn't have much more time than that and still managed a half day in Cefalu, it's quite fast and painless to get there on the train, and it's small so you can walk around the whole town in an hour or so. As other's said the cathedrale is wonderful, and the beach is great, but then we were there in July. I did a trip report that someone ressurected recently so if you click my name its still close to the top. If I had it to do over I'd go even for just a few hours.

"The Argento family is one of the great puppet families of Sicily. The father, Vincenzo, is the 4th generation of his family to carry on the tradition, and he has his studio (laboritorio) just near the Cathedral. This is where he creates the puppets."

I can second this. I actually watched Vincenzo carve a puppet and took some photos. Then he told me to come along to a show. I had been on this elderhostel cruise for 2 weeks and every time we got to a place, the puppet show was the day before.

The show was terrific and I had the "benefit" of a German tour group and a German translation of what was going on--ha ha!. Actually the German translator also gave me a personal precis in English, but you can sort of understand what is going on (puppets fighting and getting killed in different ways).

This is real folk art. I wish the Smithsonian would bring this troupe over for the Folklife Festival some year because it is an art form totally unknown to most Americans.

Wherever you go in Sicily, be sure to take in a puppet show--or two!

I just sent in Vincenzo's name as a suggestion for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on The Mall. They plan about 3 years ahead.

Who knows?

That's great Fxe SteMarie! Anything that can be done to support Vincenzo and his family is an excellent cause.
For those who don't yet know about this, all puppet shows in Sicily are based on "The Song of Roland" (Orlando) and have the same cast of Characters-though the puppets are made differently in Palermo and in Catania. Vincenzo's puppets are completely articulated, but quite heavy. They can create really intricate battle scenes. The ones from Catania are much larger, but have stiff legs and move more slowly with more ritualistic gestures.
Great move, Faux Ste Marie!

I will let you know if I hear anything from the Folklife Festival. The Festival plans things 3 years in advance. It would be a natural as there are so many Americans with Sicilian origins.

By the way, I am pure unadulterated Eastern European peasant Jewish, so I cannot claim any Italian/Sicilian blood, but that did not prevent me from enjoying the puppet show (even with the "helpful" German translation) one bit. It is a real art form.

Many Americans do not appreciate that in other cultures puppets are an art form and not just for kids.

Thanks for posting the address for this puppet troupe. When I got home, I didn't know and I felt badly about not having specific information because they really were fantastic.

If you want to recommend them to the Folklife Festival as well, just do a web search and you will find the site. That is what I did.

By the way, the whole puppet show thing became a sort of joke with the tour group. Well, I broke off from the tour in Palermo originally intending to go to the Cathedral and the Puppet Museum (Did I say I love puppets?). Well, I started out on the way to the Cathedral, and found one puppet troupe. I was intending to return for their show and then stumbled on Vincenzo's shop. Now I wish I had bought one of his puppets. I probably could not have afforded it. I ended up buying a mass produced one that is on my wall as a decoration. If you can't afford Chateau Lafitte Rothschild, you buy cheap imitation--LOL.

The Folklife Festival usually features one foreign country or region each year as well as some American folk artists. It takes place the last week of June, breaks for the 4th of July holiday, and then picks up generally for a couple more days.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if my recommendation of Vincenzo led to something?

In addition to Sicilian puppets, anyone traveling in Germany should attempt to see an opera done with puppets. The Salzburg troupe is well known in the US, but others have not toured here--and are just as good or better.

We stayed in Cefalu for three days over the summer. It is about an hour by car from Palermo. We absolutely loved the town. Would stay overnight if possible and eat at one of the restaurants on the water.

We spent an afternoon in Cefalu on my elderhostel trip. We had free time and I went to the Cathedral, which I thought was spectacular.

There was sign for a puppet show, but not on the day I was there.

We also had gelato as I recall. Some place in the main square.

Cefalu is nice.

Palermo is a big dirty city, but there is a lot more to do in Palermo.

It is always a choice.

Have certainly gotten a lot of valuable info in one day. I should have explained that after 1 1/2 days on our own, my friend and I will be on a tour for a week in Sicily, so will have an opportunity to perhaps see more of the unique things, like the puppets.

Isabel, great pictures and "script" of your trip. I noticed differences of opinion on Cefalu--guess we'll have to decide after being there. Glad to know it is not hard to get there. The info about the bus from the airport was a great help.

Hope that anyone else who has ideas, will jump in. Last April, my husband and I went to Asia on a cruise and the information from the Fodor's Asia Board made our pre-cruise days in Osaka, as well as stops in Japan and China, much more interesting. These boards are great and better than some travel guides. Thanks to all. Ciao!! mhm

Here is a link to my photos from my Elderhostel cruise on a sailboat from Catania to Palermo stopping at 5 of the Aeolian Islands.

http://www.eldergallery.com/gallery/album12

Bellastarr, thanks for the information about the puppets in Palermo! I remember you would visit Palermo shortly after we have been there in May and mentioned your "puppet mission" I also love puppets and will definitely go there next time - which I hope will be next year! I am inrigued by the history of puppetry and have a very old Chinese puppet hanging in my bedroom against the wall. I would like to add some friends - he will love that!