Palermo is the capital of the island of Sicily and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.  Its history has been anything but stable, and the city has passed from one dominating power to another with remarkable frequency. Its strategic position at the heart of the Mediterranean brought wave upon wave of invaders, including the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Swabians, the French, the Aragonese and the Bourbons just to name the most influential.

As a tourist destination, Palermo offers a huge range of historical attractions, ancient buildings, and dramatic coastlines to explore. The Cathedral is one of the most beautiful monuments of Palermo and the most significant: its structure and the overlapping of different architectural styles, recalls clearly how the various invasions have alternated over the centuries to the city government. The Palace of the Normans, among the most famous buildings of Sicily, was built by the Moors in the ninth century in the highest part of the city.