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| Baroque church decoration |
Palermo has surprised us. Not sure what we expected, but we are very glad we have made the effort to come here. The city feels so old. The area near us is a succession of grand palazzi interspersed with churches and oratorio. The palazzi are massive 4-storey buildings, all with a giant central gateway leading to an impressive internal courtyard. Some are in great condition, many are very rough, and some are abandoned. Near the port, there are even some completely bombed out from WWII and left in ruins.
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| Palazzo courtyard |
Two of the churches in particular will clearly be trip highlights. The Martorana and the royal palace Capella are both 12thC small chapels, with outstanding gold and coloured mosaics telling many religious stories. Really extraordinarily beautiful. We went through the botanical gardens, most enjoyable as a change from seeing buildings. A great avenue of evil-spiked baobab-like trees with kapok-like pods, and a nice waterlily pond with sunbathing turtles around the rim.
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| Capella interior |
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| Capella wall & ceiling mosaics |
We had a delicious focaccia today at a focacceria, a place where you choose from a huge range of premade food. A little complex as you have no idea what all the names are, and the till is separate and away from the food, so you have to rush back and forth pointing at things for the man on the till, then again later for the man serving. Morning coffee and a jam-filled croissant were the grand sum of 1€ per person, a new record low unlikely to be beaten. That’s the difference between a back street in Palermo and a main tourist square where the same would be perhaps 4-5€. We think we walked around 7 hours, no choice as we have to head straight to the bus for the airport in the morning, and there was lots we wanted to see.
Karen made a dreadful mistake today that has worked out well. She desperately needed a haircut so went to a hairdresser today in Palermo, Sicily. She wanted only a little off so said “piccolo” to the stylist showing a centimetre between her fingers, meaning “take this much off”. He started in and took heaps off, thinking Karen wanted it “piccolo” altogether, rather than “piccolo” off! I was blindly watching CNN on the TV as she was behind me.
When I turned round, there she was in the chair with a totally stunned-mullet expression, and a pixie haircut. The stylist was really pleased with himself, but Karen was in shock – seriously. We paid up, and I got her out of the pelluqueria, mumbling to herself and really not all there. Back to our room and a soothing bottle of red and she’s coming round to it. It looks very different, but good.
