2 Best Sights in Cefalu, Sicily

This museum comprises the private collection of Baron Enrico Pirajno di Mandralisca, a member of a local aristocratic family. Throughout his life, he collected antiques, artwork, fossils, ancient ceramics, and various other geological and natural history objects to form this extensive collection. His library and other items were eventually donated to the town and became the Museo Mandaralisca. The most significant piece of art here has to be the Portrait of an Unknown Man by Antonello da Messina. Monikered as the Sicilian Mona Lisa, the mysteriously smirking man is one of the early Renaissance artist's masterpeices.

Cefalù is dominated by a massive headland—la rocca—and a 12th-century Romanesque Duomo, which is one of the finest Norman cathedrals in Italy. Roger II began the church in 1131 as an offering of thanks for having been saved here from a shipwreck. Its mosaics rival those of Monreale. (Whereas Monreale's Byzantine Christ figure is an austere and powerful image, emphasizing Christ's divinity, the Cefalù Christ is softer, more compassionate, and more human.) At the Duomo you must be respectfully attired—no shorts or beachwear permitted. Private tours organized via  www.arabonormannaunesco.it can include tours of the roof and towers (€10).