Palermo rewards thin wallets: dozens of Baroque churches charge nothing, a full street-food lunch runs under €5, and AMAT buses reach Mondello and Monreale for pocket change. This is three days of Sicily's capital spent almost entirely in single euros.
The 1185 cathedral's nave, Norman royal tombs aside, is free to enter daily from 07:00; only the crypt, treasury and rooftop walk carry the €12 combined ticket. Circle the apse first for the Arabic Koranic inscription carved on the left column of the south porch.
A free palm garden facing the Norman Palace, laid out over excavated Roman villas whose mosaic floors sit exposed behind low railings. Benches under the Canary palms make it the standard picnic stop for anyone eating market food bought at Ballarò ten minutes downhill.
Sicily's most saturated Baroque interior: every surface inlaid with polychrome marble intarsia by 17th-century Palermitan workshops. Entry is €3, and the adjoining Biblioteca Comunale courtyard costs nothing to wander during library hours.
A free public garden built around a colossal Ficus macrophylla whose aerial roots form a small forest. The surrounding piazza hosted Inquisition executions; the Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri walls face it, and Sunday mornings bring a flea market under the arcades.
Less touristed than Ballarò and cheaper for produce: tomatoes and citrus by the kilo, plus fry stalls selling panelle and crocchè at €1 a portion. The market threads Via Sant'Agostino and Via Porta Carini through the Capo quarter's Arab-era street grid.
A corner counter on Corso Vittorio Emanuele near Porta Felice serving pane con panelle, sfincione and pane ca meusa standing up. Sandwiches sit at €2.50-4, a beer at €2, and there is no cover charge because there is no table service.
An 1860 gelateria on the Foro Italico waterfront where the Palermitan afternoon standard — a brioche col tuppo split and filled with gelato — costs around €3.50. Sit on the sea wall opposite instead of paying the terrace surcharge.
By day a half-empty square; after dark the surviving stalls fire up grills for stigghiola and sell plastic cups of wine for €1-2 to a crowd that stands in the street. Free to attend, and eating is optional entertainment.
Bus 389 leaves from Piazza Indipendenza for the hilltop town every 30-60 minutes, a 35-minute climb for €1.80 (or €1.40 on the AMAT app). Monreale's cathedral nave with its 6,400 m² of gold mosaics is free; only the cloister and terraces are ticketed.
The terrace behind Piazza Vittorio Emanuele looks straight down the Conca d'Oro valley to Palermo and the sea, with Monte Pellegrino closing the frame. Costs nothing, has shade and a fountain, and the surrounding bars sell espresso at €1 standing.
Bus 806 runs from Piazza Sturzo/Politeama to Mondello in about 40 minutes for €1.40. The free public stretches sit at either end of the bay beyond the paid lido cabins — the eastern end towards Valdesi is the least crowded on weekdays.
Bus 812 climbs from Piazza Sturzo up the Scala Vecchia road to the cave-sanctuary of Palermo's patron saint, built into the rock at 429 m. Entry is free, and the terrace outside gives the widest sunset view over the gulf and the city grid.