Palazzo Bellomo

I slouch through the heat down a high, narrow street to a set of five stone steps opposite a church tower and fenced in lemon trees. Inside is cool air, a 13th century residence, and eighteen rooms of a Regional Museum of Medieval and Modern Art chock full of 15th and 16th century paintings, Sicilian folk art and Greek, Arab, Norman and Byzantine artefacts. The first room is to the right of the entrance. Lit by two arched windows and four corner lamps its high ceiling and rough, bubbling walls accentuate the smooth, finely shaped Byzantine stonework dotted around the floor and lower wall space. Most of the exhibits were taken from the cathedral, the harbour or ...  Read the complete review