City guide Monreale with its mighty cathedral and cloister tour

Most tourists limit a visit to Monreale to the cathedral and the associated monastery. Admittedly, the situation in 2020 , where the dirt piles up in the streets where the rats feast, the fountains leak and the weeds grow rampant between the paving stones, is far from what you can expect as a tourist in a city where so many people come to comes.

The problem is known, as are the solutions: clean up the city and keep the tourists there for longer than the short visit to the cathedral. You can use the extra income they generate to maintain the city with all its monuments.

This city walk aims to discover a wider area of the city . That is why we start on the other side of the valley near the monastery of the Madonna delle Croci to walk to the center via the old pilgrimage road .

Park at the free parking on Via Regione Siciliana.

We first walk to the monastery of the Madonna delle Croci, of which the legend says that Mary herself indicated in a vision what it should look like.

we descend to Via Alfonzo Veneziano and pass the Chiesa Madonna dell'Orto and the Chiesa San Francesco and the (anno 2023) neglected Fontana del Pozillo , one of the oldest in the city.

On the Piazza Guglielmo II, the Galeria di Arte Moderne is located in an old Benedictine monastery.

We arrive at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele with the famous Fontana del Tritone. Time for an extensive visit to the Cathedral with the Benedictine monastery with its world-famous cloisters. Be sure to book a visit to the roof terraces from where you have a formidable panoramic view .

Back outside we go through the panoramic viewpoint to the Chiesa San Gaetano and past the Monastero Santa Caterina Badiella , a former hospital and prison at the time of the Inquisition.

We now ascend past the Church of the Sacred Heart and the Collegiate Parish of the Holy Cross and return along the ancient pilgrimage steps to the starting point.

Be sure to also consult the information about the sights once you are there . They explain what you get to see!

This city walk is part of a series of city walks and tours departing from Balestrate and Sambucco di Sicilia and described in

"Discover all the sights of western Sicily through day trips"

6/2023