Best of Sicily: full day and a half before tour starts advice

We did the Capuchin Crypts and they are excellently creepy. We also toured the Teatro Massimo, and if there is a performance there, that could be worthwhile. We did not go to Cefalu, but we know some on our tour did and it seems to be an easy day trip and a good option in good weather.

Hi there, I had bookmarked an earlier discussion about what to do around Palermo before start of an RS tour, hope this is helpful!
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/best-of-sicily-extra-days-in-palermo-before-tour

Check out the Royal Palace and Palantine Chapel. Great mosaics. https://www.italyreview.com/royal-palace-of-palermo.html

Lots to do in and near Palermo to fill your extra day. Your plans are good. I have visited the Capuchin crypts and they are weirdly interesting. Lots of churches to explore. Check out the Church of the Gesù near the Ballarò market for an opulent baroque experience. If you are interested in religious experiences, hire a driver to take you up to the cave sanctuary of Sta. Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, on Monte Pellegrino. There are also scenic viewing points up that way. The regional archeological museum Antonio Salinas is good. A puppet show is fun. Check to see if their is an opera performance at Teatro Massimo or a concert at the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi. There is a flea market with antiques (mercato delle pulci) not too far from the Palermo cathedral in Piazza Domenico Peranni but I am not sure what days/ hours it is open.
Cefalù is a lovely seaside town to explore and very popular with tourists. Easy to get there by train or bus. Train station is an easy walk to the historical center of Cefalù which is very compact. Another pretty seaside town also accessible by bus or train is Castellammare del Golfo.

We spent two nights in Cefalù to get over jet lag before our RS Tour in March and loved it! Perfect spot to relax before getting into the herdy gerdy of Palermo. Definitely worth at least a day trip in my opinion.
Enjoy the tour!

I enjoyed the street food evening tour and the puppet museum before the tour started.

Thanks all for the suggestions! We have friends who are on the tour now and I believe the tour includes a puppet show. Will look into the Massimo, definitely do the crypts, and check on Cefalu weather depending.

We were in Palermo on the tour in September and it was searingly hot, with all the buildings and small streets Palermo wasn’t comfortable at all so before we started our tour we took the train out to Cefalu, very easy and pleasant arrived Cefalu easy stroll to town square and I had wanted to see the beautiful painting “Portrait of a man” which is house in an eccentric little museum, then down the hill and picked a spot on the beach, rented the chairs and umbrella and had a wonderful day, Cefalu is very pretty, the beach gorgeous the water beautiful and nice little beach restaurants, a funny thing we only wanted a salad as it was so hot, lucky we ordered the “mixed salad” at least it had a few extras in it, at the next table one person ordered the lettuce salad and one ordered the tomato salad, you guessed it, all they got was one bowl of chopped iceberg lettuce and one bowl of chopped up tomatoes, it was pretty funny. Wonderful way to spend the day and think if I was going again I would spend all my pretour time in Cefalu

I’m just back from Sicily.
We did an evening street food tour in Palermo with “Streaty” Tours…it was great, thoroughly enjoyed it.
We also visited the Villa Giulia Botanic Gardens one day…also well worth it if you are a gardener, lots of unusual plants and very relaxing strolling the paths.
If you have a whole day, hop on the train to Cefalu, it’s only an hour away and is a very pretty town.

We found a street market/farmer's market and had lunch there - twice (two different days). I don't remember where, but it wasn't too bad of a walk (not immediate to the hotel). Fantastic food, sat outside on cheap plastic chairs and had a beer and some of the best food I've ever had.

Highly recommend if you are adventurous! I'm sure the hotel can tell you about an outdoor street market.

By the way, everyone makes a big deal about arancini, but I thought they were just so-so. But the eggplant dishes on our trip - wow!

Hope you have a great trip! I'm jealous.