Bagheria and Solunto

Bagheria is a town about 15 km (9 miles) east of Palermo and is reached by suburban train from Palermo Centrale in roughly 15-20 minutes, with frequent departures. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Palermo's aristocracy built summer villas here. Villa Palagonia, known as the Villa of Monsters, is famed for its walls lined with grotesque stone figures. Villa Valguarnera is a large baroque villa on the hill, and Villa Cattolica houses the Museo Guttuso, devoted to the painter Renato Guttuso, who is buried there. The town itself is busy and not especially pretty, so the villas are the reason to visit. Nearby, Solunto is an ancient Phoenician and later Roman hillside city above the sea, near Santa Flavia and reached by train to the Santa Flavia-Solunto-Porticello station and a short uphill walk or taxi. The site has remains of paved streets, houses with mosaics and a small museum. Panoramic views across the Gulf of Palermo make the climb worthwhile. A relaxed plan is Villa Palagonia and the Guttuso museum in the morning, lunch at a trattoria in Bagheria or on the coast at Porticello (a fishing village), then Solunto before an evening train. Opening days of the villas vary, so they must be checked.