The puppet museum, off Piazza Marina in the Kalsa, holds over 5,000 puppets — Sicilian opra dei pupi, Neapolitan pulcinellas, Burmese rod puppets, Vietnamese water puppets, Japanese bunraku. The Sicilian tradition, in which armoured paladins from the Carolingian and Crusader cycles fight in long serial narratives over weeks of nightly performances, is on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
Live performances of opra dei pupi take place several times a week in the museum's small theatre. Even if you don't catch a show, the display of working puppets and stage equipment, and the painted carts and posters around them, is worth a visit. Closed weekends in the off-season.