Before visiting Palermo, I’d read it was a city people either love or loathe. I fell firmly into the former camp. It’s a bustling, gritty place—graffitied walls, billboards bearing anti-mafia messages ...

When people search for the best places to visit in southern Italy, they’re usually picturing cliffside villages and turquoise water. That’s part of it, but southern Italy is much broader than the ...