North of Quattro Canti, Palermo

Returning to Via Maqueda we find ourselves in the Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, where Via Maqueda enters Via Ruggero Settimo, with its taxi-stands and post office. On the left side of the square Giovanni Battista Basile and his son Ernesto built the 3,200-seat theater between 1875 and 1897. It was officially opened on 16th May 1897 with a performance of Verdi's "Falstaff", and thereafter became one of Sicily's major opera houses.The statue of Lyra is by Mario Rutelli (1850-1931).

The upper floor of the Polieama Garibaldi houses the Galleria d'Arte Moderna with 19th century paintings, including some by Giuseppe Patania, Francesco Lojacono, Salvatore Lo San Giovanni degli Eremiti Forte, Giuseppe Sciuti, and from the 20th century, by Massimo Campigli, Carlo Carrà, Felice Casorati, Mario Sironi, Arturo Tosi, Renato Guttuso, Gino Severini and others. There is also a collection of Sicilian and Southern Italian sculpture, including works by Benito Civiletti, Mario Rutelli and Franz von Stuck.

Along the seafront to the east and southeast of the Porta Felice extends the Foro Umberto I, a broad boulevard which affords magnificent views of the Bay of Palermo and is a popular resort of the citizens on summer evenings. At the southern end of the Foro Umberto I is the beautiful Villa Giulia park, also known as La Flora (laid out in 1777). On the west side of this the Botanic Garden has a magnificent variety of plants including date and coconut palms, banana trees and fine stands of bamboos and papyrus.

West of Santa Maria della Catena in Palermo lies the picturesque boating harbor, La Cala, and to the south is the Piazza Marina, almost entirely occupied by the tropical Giardino Garibaldi. The Palazzo Chiaramonte, usually known as Lo Steri, on the east side of this square, was built between 1307 and 1380 and later became the residence of the viceroy.

Piazza San Domenico in Palermo is named after the church of San Domenico, originally built in the 13th century but finally rebuilt in the Baroque style between 1636 and 1640. The massive twin-towered front was added in 1726; like the Column to Our Lady, it was designed by T. M. Napoli. The church is a spacious, triple-aisled basilica. The rich fittings include a marble pietà (depicting the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ on her lap) by Domenico Gagini (c. 1460) and a large Rococo organ of 1781. It was in San Domenico that the parliament called by Ruggero Settimo (Roger VII) in 1848 sat, and subsequently the old Dominican church became a Sicilian pantheon, or burial-place for the illustrious dead; here will be found the graves of the politicians F. Crispi and R. Settimo, the poet G. Meli, the painter P. Novelli and the astronomer G. Piazzi, among others.

Beyond San Domenico in Palermo stands the Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico, which may be visited in the company of the verger, who lives at Via Bambinai 16. Dating from 1578 this building, like the Oratorio of St Zita, was lavishly adorned with stucco work by Giacoma Serpotta. Below the paintings is a Madonna and Rosary with St Dominic by Anthonis van Dyck (1628).