Italy Guide
Sicily
Albergheria district
The Albergheria district just to the northwest of the train station hasn't changed substantially for several hundred years. A maze of tiny streets and tall leaning buildings, it's an engaging place to wander, much of the central area taken up by a street market that all but conceals several fine churches. Via Ponticello leads down past the Baroque church of Il Gesù, or Casa Professa (Mon– Sat 7–11.30am & 5–6.30pm, Sun 7am–12.30pm & 5–6.30pm), the first Jesuit foundation in Sicily and gloriously decorated inside, to Piazza Ballarò – along with adjacent Piazza del Carmine the focus of a raucous daily market, with bulging vegetable stalls, unmarked drinking dens and some good snack stalls.
At the westernmost edge of the quarter, over Via Benedettini, is the Albergheria's quietest haven, the deconsecrated church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti (Mon– Sat 9am–7pm, Sun & hols 9am–1pm; €6) – St John of the Hermits. Built in 1132, it's the most obviously Arabic of the city's Norman relics, with five ochre domes topping a small church that was built upon the remains of a mosque.