Palermo doesn't reveal its delights easily, bit it's worth the effort

You can do Palermo in a day.  It's sprawling, noisy, untidy, rough around the edges and crumbling: a
grand lady whose best years are fading to distant memory.  It's also set on an exquisite bay, packed with intriguing architecture, enlivened by exotic gardens and exudes the kind of fascination you'd expect from a place that's been a crossroads and clashing point for diverse cultures for more than 3000 years.  Yes, you can do it in a day … but I suspect you can spend a lifetime here and not unravel the city's mysteries.

We only had two days, so we had to stick with the surface introduction.  That's pretty straightforward and sees you spending most of your time in the early middle ages.  Because you can't come here without making a pilgrimage to the Palatine Chapel and the cathedral in Monreale, both gold-suffused jewel boxes of virtuoso mosaic work that look back to a time when this island was one of the most culturally sophisticated places in the world.

There are few places that literally take your breath away; Roger II's private chapel did it for me.  Built in the 1130s, it's a relatively small space now surrounded by a palace that's grown from its Norman foundations to be the modern home of Sicilian government.  You'll see other grand rooms and courtyards, but it's the chapel everyone is here for.

Imagine gold not just as a colour, but as a feeling.  As light itself, enveloping you in its warmth.  That's the initial impression as you step into the space, where the precious metal forms the backdrop for
spectacularly detailed Byzantine-style mosaics.  As your eyes adjust, you start focusing on the beauty and detail of the bible stories depicted above you.  Drop your eyes to their normal level, and you could spend a day wondering at the geometric precision and intricacy of the marble-inlaid walls.  Look all the way up, and there's a heavily carved and decorated Moorish wooden ceiling.  You could spend hours here and only take in a fraction, so rich is the decoration.

Sadly, you won't be able to.  First because you have too much to do, and secondly because the crowds will eventually push you on.  This is one of the most important things to see in all of Sicily, and everyone knows it.  You'll probably have to stand in quite a queue, and if you travel in May you'll be jostling for space with Italian school groups.  Put up with it; it's magnificent.  And don't leave without seeing the rest of the palace.  While most rooms are unexceptional, there is one secular room left from Roger's time that offers equally gorgeous mosaics, but here laying animals before you in vivid hunting scenes.

Roger's grandson, William II, had all this to inspire him when he got to work on a cathedral in

Monreale, on a hill overlooking the city, 50 years later.  The styles are roughly similar, though Monreale is much bigger, so you don't have quite the same claustrophobically golden experience.  But it's close.  With more room to work with, the artists could delve deeper into the bible stories.  We enjoyed circling the nave "reading" the stories of creation and Jesus' life.  It's extraordinary how, working in bits of stone, the artists managed to get individuality and expression into the faces.  We particularly enjoyed the portrayal of God resting on the 7th day of creation, looking like a tired but self-satisfied executive ready to down a glass of good wine in his garden.  There's also an intriguing mosaic portrait of Thomas Beckett here that's probably what he really looked like, given he was a friend of the court and they put him near the altar to distance themselves from the atrocity their murderous cousin had instigated back in England.

Unlike the Palatine Chapel, you don't have to pay to get in to the cathedral here.  (Ignore the long queue to the right before entry, that's only for audio guides.  As a general tip, I'd suggest avoiding these in Sicily.  We found the quality of translation so bad that just drinking everything in and reading about it online later was more effective.)  You do have to pay to get behind the altar and into the cathedral museum, extras I recommend for three reasons.  (1) You'll get a much better view of the main altar.  (2) There's a baroque chapel to the right that's so hideously, overwhelmingly over-the-top that you really need to see it.  Phenomenal craftsmanship, fabulous individual elements but, all together, it would be enough to drive you to madness if you were accidentally locked in.

(3)  The museum allows you to climb up through the old archbishop's palace, giving you stunning views over the Conca d'Oro (the bay of Palermo), the intricate brickwork on the outside of the cathedral and the beautiful cloister.  The latter is a separate entry fee in a different museum, so if you're in a hurry or trying to limit your expenditure, this is a good cheat.

Back in Palermo, we caught the Hop On Hop Off City Sightseeing bus to get a sense of the rest of town.  The Cathedral is more Norman-Arabic fusion, there are a few Roman ruins, the odd medieval facade or Arabic-domed tower.  Destruction from WW2 triggered a few hideous modern tower blocks and a big neighbourhood of grand 19th century buildings will remind you of Barcelona fallen upon harder times.  But the majority of town is baroque.  Lofty Corinthian columns, broken pediments, frolicking deities, dancing putti and millions of decorative scrolls shout their former glory … too often

from beneath blankets of grime.  For every recently restored building there's another that's derelict; shored up with iron bars or wooden beams, waiting for cash and love to return it to its lost magnificence.

The bus tour was a great introduction and, with so much lying ahead in the next nine days of my visit, left me feeling like I'd seen enough.  Now back home, I think I could happily return for a more leisurely exploration.  I'd like to see a performance in the grand opera house.  Get inside some of those quirky churches.  Explore the famous markets.  But at the end of a day there I was exhausted.  By the crowds, the traffic (exacerbated by a strike and protests around the palace), the noise and the dirt.  I suspect the secret to Palermo is to do it a little at a time, in bite-sized chunks.

Which is why it also turned out to be an inspired move to stay up in Monreale.  I'll do an entry on hotels later.  But as an overall base, this is a great compromise.  Close enough to get into Palermo easily (half an hour on a bus), but far enough away to have a village-like charm.  There are good restaurants, stunning views and you'll feel perfectly safe rambling around at night.  Just make sure you find the same bus back that you took to town.  Don't make our mistake and switch lines … turns out there are two Monreale lines and one goes to the modern town, two or three miles downhill from where we wanted to be.

Let's just say I did a hell of a lot more walking that day than I'd planned.  But to surround myself once more in the gold of the Palatine Chapel, I'd do it all over again.