November 5th Palermo Imagine waking to sunny skies a beautiful rainbow over the Duomo! Breakfast is served from the rooftop restaurant with lots of levels of outdoor seating with views of Palermo from the dock to the north, to the Norman castle to our south. Just from our balcony we could look down on the Duomo di Santa Anna, a theater and many other structures just waiting to be explored.
With a map we wandered out to find the Norman castle in the distance. We hiked in the sunshine listening to sounds of a city – scooters, cars, buses and vans zipped around at a zippy pace. Parking is completely crazy -anywhere you could fit your car or scooter was fair game!
Ballaro market was fun even in the pouring rain! Our table under a giant tarp kept us mostly dry as we were entertained by the fish mongers singing "Ballaro, Ballaro...." It was in Italian but we understood that much! Their dancing was quite entertaining. So were our crazy waiters who kept up a friendly patter !
The Royal Palace has a very imposing exterior housing an amazing mosaic chapel, statues and a feature of how they are using 3D printing to create statutes to preserve their images. Created a 3D version of ourselves and emailing it while standing in a Norman castle built on the walls of the original Etruscan city walls is quite exciting. We loved going into the excavation below where holographic images told of the Etruscan city wall on which the castle was erected. If you stood at the city gate you could look down the avenue all the way down to the gate near the port! Same as you would have seen 2000 years ago except for the cars, trucks, planes above and cruise ships in port!
The archbishops Palace is full of amazing art and as we looked from the Madonna painting inside, there was another rainbow gracing us! Getting hungry – so off to the market Ballaro! Rain that had been threatening all day erupted in a huge downpour, so we chose a nearby restaurant and at beneath a series of tarps above. Rain didn’t seem to make the fish mongers sad, they were doing a song about Ballaro and danced behind their table full of fresh caught fish. Our waiter was quite the character as he posed kissing his boss The Cathedral usually has tours along the rooftop – but the rain and lightning put a stop to that! Touring the tombs of Frederick the 1st and the great Frederick the 2nd are both here – we watched a brief video on how they opened the crypt and learned more about the interred. We then descended to look around the crypt from the 1100s Jim's favorite was the knights tomb.
Food in Palermo
Street vendor convinces us to try this for just 1 Euro!
The food in Palermo was incredible! From our rooftop terrace breakfast, with a wide assortment of baked goods, to meats and cheeses to eggs or cereal, there was such a variety something for everyone! We tried fresh persimmons as they were in season. Delicious! After walking all morning it started to rain so we ate at a street market lunch in Ballero, eggplant rolled up, so good. Finally. we went to to a great evening restaurant La Galleria Ristoro Eventi for Seafood Salad, Camponata, Grilled Swordfish with salad and of course a dolce (sweet) cake for dessert! (https://www.facebook.com/lagalleria2014/) Another restaurant we really enjoyed was Osteria Allivaru. we knew they didnt' open til later, but as we were wandering by they welcomed us in and treated us to an amazing feast! We had an amazing Insalata Finocettio Arancia: a salad of oranges and lemon dressed in olive oil with fennel slices and topped with toasted bread crumbs. (Jim had yet to successfully copy this salad which seems so simple, but the sweetness of Sicilian produce cannot be duplicated here!) Barb had pasta with almonds which was excellent. Check out their whole menu here (https://www.instagram.com/alivaru_dacarlo/
Jim is our tech guru for the trip, he often used google translate to read menus. He also liked to use the app Life360 if I was in a shop too long and he wished to locate me!
Try this at home using a Sicilian recipe! This dish is camponata - fairly simple really: Sicilian eggplants are diced and cubed, sauted in olive oil with celery and onions. After all have been sauteed for a few minutes, you add tomatoes, olives, capers, tomato paste, and oregano. The final seasonings are vinegar, sugar, salt, and black pepper. We tried this version https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/247268/eggplant-caponata-sicilian-version/
Monreale
Jaw dropping beauty in the Monreale Cathedral. To us, it epitomized Sicily. Its a huge Romanesque building with Byzantine, Norman and Arab elements blending in a stunning array. Our guide told us to look up and admire the Old Testament stories on the lower part of the walls. The New Testament was told just above and all the Saints portrayed on the columns. Jesus' image was over 26 feet tall and just his hands are 7 feet tall. His fingers even tell you he is 1 of 3 in the Trinity of God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was again just beyond belief that each of the glass tiles that make up this mosaic are as small as 1/3 of an inch! We can upon this workman keeping the floor in good repair, so glad they are maintaining this work of genius and many many hands bult between 1174 and 1189 BC
Other than his light source, repairs look to be done very "old school"
We found one of my favorite souvenirs at the shop Realizzato a mano a Monreale, Mosaico art ed Artiginato of Anonina Parisi. It is located on Via Arcivescovado just behind the Cathedral. There are many tiny shops where you can watch artisans create mini works of art! Portable and reasonably priced for the amount of work involved.
