The Northern coast
Monte Pellegrino The Heirkte of the Greeks, 606 meters high, looks out over the city of Palermo and its gulf. Its present name derives from the Arabic Gebel Grin, "nearby mount", and in effect, with its truncated shape, the mountain, defined by Goethe "the finest promontory in the world", is always present in panoramic views of the city, as if it were an inseparable part of it. Thus, part of the history of the city is also linked to this mountain. Here there lived the first men of the Conca d'Oro plain, as we know from the fascinating Paleolithic graffiti found inside some caves; these graffiti are among the most interesting in the world. The subjects of the graffiti are men, women and animals, in a variety of scenes, encarved with rare skill, which follow each other. The cast of the graffiti is exposed in the Regional Archaeological Museum of Palermo. This mountain is also associated with the First Punic War: Hamilcar Barca entrenched himself on top of it, and thence made sallies against the Romans in the city. Santa Rosalia, the patron saint of the city, was a hermit here; to her is dedicated the shrine built in the seventeenth century over the grotto where the saint lived out the last years of her life in prayer. The church, which is just inside the cave, has a big entrance hall; its walls are covered with plenty of silver votive offerings and objects, which the faithful offer the saint for her miraculous intervention. The patron saint is celebrated twice a year: in July, with the traditional "festino", and on the 4th of September with a procession of believers along the "old street" to the top of the mountain. Behind this promontory, finally, there is the pretty bathing resort of Mondello .
The latter, which developed around bathing facilities set up in 1905-1911, was originally a little fishermen's village, now wholly transformed into a tourist resort. Along the avenues at Mondello one can admire a lot of little art nouveau villas.
Monreale On the slopes of Monte Caputo, 300 meters above sea level, this little town slowly formed in the late middle ages around the Benedictine abbey and the monumental cathedral.
Cefalù The name of this small town, Cefalù, may be derived either from the Greek Kephaloidion, or the Punic Kefa. It is generally connected with the shape of the Rocca, the promontory which looms over the town and which resembles a small head. The name, however, could just as well refer to the geographic configuration of Cefalù itself. Of the origins of Cefalù we have only scanty clues. It must have begun as a fortified outpost, almost certainly Greek, toward the end of the fifth century BC . It was probably at the feet of the Rocca where today the historic center of Cefalù is located. The area is still girded by a wall of megalithic construction, a good part of which is original.
