Palermo From Sun Princess | What Can You See in One Day?
Visiting Palermo from a cruise ship? 🇮🇹🚢 We explored Palermo independently from Sun Princess to see just how much we could experience in one port day. From the sightseeing bus and Palermo Cathedral to the incredible Teatro Massimo, Sicilian food and gelato, here's how our day really went. Welcome to another vlog from our Princess Cruises Mediterranean adventure onboard Sun Princess! It's Sunday 28th September 2025 and we've arrived at our first cruise port – Palermo, Sicily. 🇮🇹 This is our first ever Princess cruise and, for Palermo, we decided not to book an organised shore excursion. After doing some research beforehand, we'd discovered that we could pick up the Palermo City Sightseeing Bus close to the cruise port for around €15 each, so that's exactly what we did. We boarded around a five-minute walk from the port at Stop 2 – Palazzo Steri, stayed onboard through several stops and got off at Stop 5 – Royal Palace / Cathedral. And that's where our Palermo adventure really began! 🇮🇹 In this Palermo vlog we visit: 🚌 Palermo City Sightseeing Bus 👑 Royal Palace / Palazzo dei Normanni area 🚪 Porta Nuova 🏛️ Teatro Marmoreo 🌳 Palermo's beautiful gardens ⛪ Palermo Cathedral 🌹 Statue of Santa Rosalia 🏺 Roman Villa archaeological remains ⛪ Church of Saint Augustine 🎭 Teatro Massimo 👑 The Royal Box inside Teatro Massimo 🎼 Pompeian Hall 🇮🇹 Piazza Giuseppe Verdi 🍝 Trattoria Tipica Siciliana 🍨 Gelateria Nonnino ⛪ Chiesa di San Domenico ⚓ Palermo Marina 🌊 Palermo waterfront and boardwalk 🚢 Walk back to Sun Princess 🎭 Our surprise highlight – Teatro Massimo One of the biggest surprises of the entire day was Teatro Massimo. We hadn't planned this as the main attraction, but we're so glad we visited. Tickets were around €15 each and the guided tour lasted approximately an hour. What an absolutely stunning building! 😍 We visited the beautiful auditorium, the Royal Box and the Pompeian Hall, and were lucky enough to hear the orchestra practising while we were there. We also discovered that scenes from The Godfather Part III were filmed at Teatro Massimo – something we didn't know beforehand. If you're visiting Palermo, we'd definitely recommend putting this one on your list. ⚠️ Something we'd do differently next time Here's an important tip from our experience. We wanted to visit Palazzo dei Normanni – the Royal Palace, but the queues to purchase tickets were extremely long. We also wanted to visit Palermo Cathedral and walk across the cathedral rooftops, but unfortunately the tickets had completely sold out. We were gutted! 💡 If these attractions are important to you, we'd recommend looking at pre-booking your tickets before arriving in Palermo. We hadn't done this because we wanted a relaxed day and hadn't realised how busy they could become. You live and learn – next time we'll be better prepared! 😂 🚌 Palermo sightseeing bus tip If you're arriving on a cruise ship, you don't necessarily need to purchase the sightseeing bus through the cruise line. We bought our Palermo City Sightseeing tickets independently near the port for approximately €15 each. For us, it was a really useful way of getting into Palermo and seeing more of the city without booking a full organised excursion. Always check current routes, prices and operating times before travelling, as these can change. 🍝 And of course... Sicilian food! After all that exploring, we definitely needed something to eat! We stopped at Trattoria Tipica Siciliana for some much-needed food before continuing towards the port. And we couldn't leave Sicily without gelato! 🍨😂 We stopped at Gelateria Nonnino, which was exactly what we needed before walking back towards Sun Princess through Palermo's marina and regenerated waterfront area. ❤️ What did we think of Palermo? We loved it. There was far more to see than we could possibly fit into one cruise-port day. We felt safe during our visit, found some beautiful historic areas and particularly loved the surroundings of Palermo Cathedral and the Royal Palace. Teatro Massimo was another huge highlight. Palermo is definitely somewhere we'd happily return to – especially because we've got some unfinished business with that cathedral rooftop! 😂 Please give the video a thumbs up and use the Hype button if it is available to you—it genuinely helps our channel. Thank you for travelling with us. Steven Cruise Travel And Explore – With Stick Man Steve _____________________________________ ☕️ Support the Channel If my videos have helped you plan a cruise or holiday and you’d like to say thank you, you can buy me a coffee here: 👉 https://ko-fi.com/cruisetravelaandexplore There’s absolutely no pressure — your likes, comments and support mean just as much. But any contribution helps towards filming, editing and keeping the channel going ❤️ _____________________________________ #Palermo #SunPrincess #PrincessCruises #PalermoSicily #Sicily #PalermoCruisePort #MediterraneanCruise #TeatroMassimo