Interior of the restored Massimo opera house in Palermo
This Belle Epoque masterpiece was closed for restorations, they said, for more than 20 years. Nothing happened, mobsters played cards in its basement rooms, until Leoluca Orlando, brave anti-mafia mayor, took office. Now it is the pride of the city. For eight euros you can tour the opera house, built on the site of a convent and neighborhood destroyed to make room for it. They say the ghost of a nun haunts the place and makes theater goers trip on the bottom step of an internal staircase. The external staircase leading up to the lions before its front door was the setting for the final scene of The Godfather III. Currently playing: the opera Siegfried.