What is the Palermo outdoor escape game?
The Palermo outdoor escape game is an escape room with the city as its set: the puzzles are built into the façades, fountains and gateways of the old centre, and you play them on your smartphone. Each of the 10 stops holds one puzzle, solved by observing what is around you and reasoning. Set aside about 2 hours, of which 34 minutes are walking over 2.8 km.
The puzzles sit at the Norman Palace and the Porta Nuova gate, at the cathedral and the marble interiors of the Chiesa del Gesù, around the Pretoria Fountain and under the four curved corners of the Quattro Canti, and finally on the steps of the Teatro Massimo. Palermo rewards close looking, because Arab-Norman, baroque and 19th-century buildings stand within a few streets of each other.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 34 min · 2.8 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Each landmark sets one puzzle that you crack with observation and logic. Nothing has to be known in advance.
Study the stone
Clues are carved into statues, fountains, gates and bell towers, so look at the surfaces rather than through them.
Walk
Google Maps links the stops: 34 minutes on foot across 2.8 km of the historic centre.
Take your time
No countdown runs. Open up to three levels of hints, break for a granita and continue later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
Because the puzzles stand alone, each person can lead one, and no one needs to have read up on Sicily first.
Couples
A challenge you work on together between one square and the next, with no clock in the background.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, which makes it easy to send colleagues out on the same route.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from the Norman Palace to the Teatro Massimo
10 stops · about 34 min walking · start: Norman Palace · finish: Teatro Massimo
The first puzzle is set at the Norman Palace on the high ground of the old city, next to the Porta Nuova gate, which comes second. From there the route runs along the old main street to Palermo Cathedral, turns into the quarters behind it for the Chiesa del Gesù and La Martorana, and crosses Piazza Pretoria and the Quattro Canti. It then heads north to San Domenico and the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum before the final puzzle at the Teatro Massimo. Begin in daylight, since you solve everything outdoors. The app lets you reorder the stops, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Norman PalaceStart
The Palazzo dei Normanni, also called the Royal Palace, grew from an Arab-era fortress on the highest point of the old city and became the residence of the Norman kings in the 12th century. Today it is the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. With other Arab-Norman monuments of Palermo it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015.
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2Porta Nuova
This monumental gate stands at the top of the Cassaro, today Corso Vittorio Emanuele, right next to the Norman Palace. It was built in the 16th century to commemorate Emperor Charles V's entry into Palermo in 1535 after his victory at Tunis. On its outer side four large figures of Moors support the upper floor, which is crowned by a pyramid-shaped roof of coloured tiles.
3Palermo Cathedral
Archbishop Walter Ophamil founded the cathedral in 1184 on the site of an earlier church that had served as a mosque under Arab rule. Centuries of rebuilding left Norman, Gothic, Catalan and baroque features, and the neoclassical dome was added in the late 18th century. Inside lie royal tombs, including that of Emperor Frederick II.
4Chiesa del Gesù
Also known as Casa Professa, this was the first church of the Jesuits in Sicily, built from the late 16th century. Its interior is covered with inlaid coloured marble and stucco, a typical Sicilian baroque technique called marmi mischi. The church was badly damaged by bombing in 1943 and later restored.
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5Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (La Martorana)
George of Antioch, admiral of King Roger II, founded this church in 1143, which is why it is named after the admiral. Its Byzantine mosaics include a scene of Christ crowning Roger II. The nickname Martorana comes from a nearby convent whose nuns, it is said, invented the marzipan fruits known as frutta martorana.
6Piazza Pretoria
The square is filled by the Pretoria Fountain, made in Florence by Francesco Camilliani in the 16th century for a private villa and later sold to the city of Palermo. Its many nude statues earned it the nickname Fountain of Shame. Facing it stands Palazzo delle Aquile, Palermo's town hall.
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7Quattro Canti
This baroque crossroads, officially Piazza Vigliena, was laid out in the early 17th century where Via Maqueda crosses the Cassaro, today Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Each of its four curved façades has a fountain and statues of a season, a Spanish king and a patron saint. It divides the historic centre into four traditional districts.
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8San Domenico
The Dominican church of San Domenico was rebuilt from the 17th century, and its baroque façade with two bell towers was completed in the 18th century. It is known as the pantheon of Palermo because many famous Sicilians are buried here, among them the anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone. In front of it stands a column topped by a statue of the Virgin Mary.
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9Antonio Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum
Sicily's main archaeological museum occupies a former monastery of the Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri, next to the church of the Olivella. It is named after Antonio Salinas, the archaeologist who directed it in the 19th century. Its collection includes the carved metopes from the Greek temples of Selinunte.
10Teatro MassimoFinish
Designed by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile and completed by his son Ernesto, the Teatro Massimo opened in 1897 and is the largest opera house in Italy. Two bronze lions with allegorical figures flank its wide staircase. The final scene of The Godfather Part III was filmed on these steps.
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