08/25/2026
Imagine yourself in the beginning of the 1200s. You're a shepherd or a woman farmer. After a pilgrimage from the heart of Sicily, you arrive off of mountain trail or from the wheat fields and you enter Monreale Cathedral for the first time.
Look around. Take a few seconds.
Monreale Cathedral is like Times Square, Las Vegas, and an IMAX film for someone who couldn't read or write and certainly never held a book in their hands, let alone a cell phone.
Perhaps you aren't even Christian because your family is Muslim or perhaps you are part of the Eastern Christian church versus the Latin church. Or perhaps you still practice pre-Christian rituals that have no name passed to you from your grandmother's grandmother. The late 12th century/early 13th century when Monreale opened, was during the Norman kingdom of Sicily, after the Arab domination, when many different religions were being practiced by Sicilians. The Normans' directive by the Vatican was to convert the island's population to the Latin, Roman Christian church.
.. Walk into this Cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary and decorated with 63,000 square feet of mosaic tiles showing scenes from the Old Testament and the New Testament on every inch of the place, and well, you're going to become a believer!
Oh, the dazzling gold tessera! Wow, the stories!
Do you remember the first time you walked into Times Square or on the Strip of Las Vegas? I do. Heck, even today, when I walk through Times Square I feel a sense of awe, and I'm a New Yorker! Well, I venture to guess that a citizen of Sicily eight hundred years ago felt that same sensation of awe.
Allow yourself to have that sense again when you enter this remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site.
When you travel with Experience Sicily and are led by our trusted expert, local guides, we won't just take you to the sites,
we'll help you *feel* the sites ...
.. so you can *feel* Sicily.
