Palazzo Chiaramonte Steri — Attraction in Palermo

Their online reservation system was out of order for several days. Since the information on their site weren't efficient, we called the day that we wanted to visit the Palazzo in order to clarify different things. Among others we asked if the tour was on English too, as it is written in their site , and we received a positive answer. We also asked about the scheduled tours of the day. When we arrived we were informed that the tour of 13:00 was full because a group had booked all places. So why when we called this morning you didn't tell us so? We booked the 14:00 tour. Our guide was Mrs. Ornella Ferro. Initially she was making the tour only on Italian. When I told her that we booked a tour on both English/Italian language she said that "no, only a few information will be in English". What bothered me was that although she was fluent in English, we were 12 foreigners and 4 Italians and she didn't even bother to ask if the rest we were understanding her. If we hadn't asked to talk on English too she wouldn't bother at all. It was more than obvious that she didn't like to give us a tour. The biggest part of the rooms with the drawings of the prisoners were closed but we weren't been informed earlier. In general, a really really bad experience. Contrary to this experience, a few days earlier we had an amazing guided tour in Benedictine monastery in Catania that belongs to the university of the city (like this palazzo belongs to Palermo...

So interesting! 3 main parts: The prisoners' cells from the time of the Inquisition when anyone could find themselves locked up by the Church - possibly because you were of the wrong religion (in the eyes of the Inquisitors) or possibly because your neighbour wanted your house and accused you of wrong-doing so you'd be sent to this prison. The 'graffiti' drawn by the prisoners is at the other end of the spectrum from the gold mosaics of Palazzo Reale and Mondello but it is just as compelling and memorable. Parts of the house which belonged to the Chiaramonte family who were so important they even had their own style of architecture and decoration. An exhibition which is centred around a famous painting of Vucciria market. You have to take a guided tour which is included in the price. It departs on the hour. We were the only ones on our tour. We told our excellent guide - Daniele - that we were learning Italian and he was brilliant at speaking slowly and doing English when it was needed. I'm sure they are used to offering different languages. We bought a combined ticket for 12€ with the Botanical gardens - for that you also get an audio tour and map of the gardens which made them...

What a wonderful place. We telephoned the day before to check if the painting by Renato Guttuso was on display and the availability of tours staff were very helpful. When we arrived the next day we were greeted by staff and introduced to Deborah who was to be our guide. Although there were only the two of us the tour started immediately. Deborah's knowledge brought the former prison, rooms and exhibits to life and added immensely to our enjoyment. She gave us lots of interesting historical information and answered all our questions, she was able to explain things clearly. We saw the amazing painting displayed beautifully, but so much more. We would would like to say thank you. This visit proved to be the highlight of our holiday and we couldn't wait to recommend the visit to all we met. Grazie! Our visit was 31st...