Cefalù
This seaside town is famous for its 12th century Norman cathedral and delightful medieval ambience. It also has a public beach. Ruins of a fortress are visible on the mountain overlooking Cefalù. Inside the hilltop castle's wall, the temple of Diana is a Greek structure built on an older Sicanian one, and the view from the wooded mountain is fantastic. There are traces of Sicanian-era walls elsewhere in the town, too. The Greeks arrived in the region around 600 BC, but the native Sicanians had been here for at least 10 thousand years. There are a number of minor but interesting sights in the town, such as the Osteria Magna, a residence of King Roger II, and the Lavatoio, a medieval wash house fed by springs and carved out of the rock. The Norman cathedral, Cefalù's main attraction, is a Romanesque structure with "proto-Gothic" elements such as a long, high nave and high arched windows, and a splendid Byzantine mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the apse.
Bottom Line: A very special town, western Sicily's answer to Taormina. See it if you get the chance. It's worth a special trip and it has a public beach.
Getting There: From Messina take the A20 to either Cefalù exit, Est or Ovest. From Palermo, the A19 to Termini Imerese and then the A20 to Cefalù. By car or train, it's only about 50 minutes from Palermo, a convenient stop on the Messina-Palermo train line.
Dining: Two of our favourites are Trappitu at Via Bordonaro 96, with a dining room on the rocky shore, and La Brace at Via XXV Novembre 10, both a few steps from the cathedral.