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Located inside of Palermo’s defensive walls in an enormous, arched space is this bar, restaurant, bookshop and jazz venue all combined. There are cubbyholes for hiding out, a fireplace in winter and a terrace in summer.

Visconti’s 1948 adaptation of Verga’s I Malavoglia , the story of a fisherman’s failed dream of independence.

Check this free publication for listings of all music, theatre and art happenings in Palermo, including summer music festivals organized in the Giardini Inglese and Fiera del Mediterraneo. Available at tourist offices, cinemas, bars and cafés.

Sciascia (1921–89) was a political essayist and novelist. Works such as The Wine Dark Sea give insight into the complicated world of Sicilian thinking and Mafia culture.

The open nave of Santa Maria dello Spasimo alla Kalsa, a former church, is a romantic venue for performances and film. Music can be heard from the upper outdoor terrace as well, while artworks are on display in the covered exhibition space. It is an innovative and resourceful use for one of Palermo’s damaged historic buildings and one of the first venues to start the revival of the Kalsa neighbourhood (see Santa Maria dello Spasimo).

Born at Caos near Agrigento, Pirandello (1867–1936) is known as the founder of 20th-century drama. His best-known work is the play Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921).

Not far from I Candelai, tables are set outside in the little piazza. Music is the focus here, with jazz jamming sessions and up-and-coming Italian rock groups.

The collection is the patrimony of the Puglisi family, pupari for five generations. The master was Don Ignazio il Pastaro, who learned the craft from his father and passed it down to his sons and grandsons. He built up the collection of puppets, scenery and manuscripts by purchasing entire workshops of famous pupari from the areas around Catania and Syracuse as they went out of business.

There were puppeteers in ancient Syracuse, but the opera dei pupi as we know it today really became popular in the 1800s. Puppet theatres provided nightly entertainment for thousands of Sicilians – Palermo had more than 25 theatres where full houses would watch the good guys fight the bad guys in stories of adventure and romance, chivalry and treachery. Travelling puppet theatres drew huge crowds in smaller villages.