Traveller in Palermo

Palermo lived up to my expectations:

• Baroque churches, lavishly decorated inside and outside.
  
• Palazzios, from well-maintained to almost falling apart
  
• Colourful markets, live fish and tripe
  
• Pollution, car exhaust fumes
  
• Motorcycles, weaving in out of the line of traffic
  
• Laundry, hanging in between the houses and dripping on passers-by

Central Palermo is compact and we found it easy to find our way and went everywhere on foot.

Quattro Canti Piazza Vigliena, a baroque crossroads of Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele. On the four sides of this round piazza there are concave façades of the four corner buildings, each decorated with a fountain and statues.

Fontana Pretoria on Via Maqueda, this fountain has three levels and is decorated with mythological creatures, sirens and monsters. This fountain is huge. It was built in the 16th century. In those days the nuns, who lived in the convent on this piazza, were not happy with it at all. They were embarrassed by these naked men right in front of them.

La Martorana a medieval church with a Baroque façade and a 12th century campanile. Inside a series of spectacular mosaics laid on and around the columns which support the dome. This dome has the best mosaic of all: Christ Pantocrator surrounded by angels, the prophets and the four evangelists. The colours are an amazing pale green, azure blue and wine red against a golden background

There are more mosaics at Cappella Palatina, Piazza Indipendenza but when we saw the long queue in front of the entrance we decided to give it a miss and went to Monreale instead. This cathedral has mosaics that rival the ones in Cappella Palatina. And the good thing is that there are far fewer tourists.

Quick Tips:

Look up at the beautiful baroque façades, take your time to see all the details.

Get a free city map from the Tourist Office Kiosk next to Fontana Pretoria on Via Maqueda.

Send your e-mails from: Aetna International at Via Maqueda 353.
1 hour at €3,50
30 mins at € 1,80
15 mins at € 1

Walk along Via Maqueta, its continuation is Vialle della Liberta. This street changes in character from old pollution stained Baroque palazzios to new modern shops and offices. On this street you will find all the branded names, a good place to shop.

Best Way To Get Around:

They best way to get around is on foot. The streets are narrow, one-way traffic, and congested all day.

All main sight s are fairly close together. The only time you need a bus is to go to Monreale. This is 8 kms to the southwest. There are frequent buses from Piazza dell’Indipendenza. Take #389 which drops you in front of the cathedral.

It a thirty-minute walk from Palermo’s central train station to Piazza dell’Indipendenza. #109 bus runs from the station to Piazza dell’Indipendenza.

You must buy your bus ticket before you board the bus at a tabacchi or from a kiosk at the bus stop. Don’t forget to validate them in the machine in the bus. If you don’t you will be fined by one of the many inspectors who block both exits when they come on board. They make no exceptions for foreigners.

Hotel Orientale is five minutes on foot from the Central railway station. It is inside an old historical building: Palazzo: Filangieri Principe di Cuto. Filangieri’s bust can be seen in the vaulted entry to the hotel. The palazzio dates back to the early 18th century.

The entrance is through an impressive porch on to an inner courtyard. If you have come by car there is enough parking place here. At night the big entrance doors are closed.

At the far end of this courtyard a marble staircase leads to the hotel which is on the first floor. We were warmly welcomed by a lady who spoke good English.

Our room, no 7, was very much to our liking. To begin with it is huge: 5 x 8 metres and 4 metres high. It is more a ballroom than a bedroom. It is on the front and overlooks Via Maqueda. It is built over an archway through which traffic can reach the market streets behind the hotel.

There is a balcony all along our room. The furniture is style 1950s. There is a double bed, with azure blue cover, two bedside tables with blue and white marble tops. Two bedside lamps, their lampshades in the shape of flowers. There are two dressing tables matching the bedside tables in style,

In the middle of the room there is a mahogany dining table and three chairs. Opposite the double bed a wardrobe and next to it a single bed. And still there is enough place to walk about.

There are huge french windows with solid half-blinds and outside louvre doors to shut out light and noise. In front of it a buff coloured floor to ceiling curtain. There is air-conditioning but we did not need this in early May.

Above the bed there is a painting of sailing ships moored in harbour. The blue sky matches harmoniously with the blue bed cover.

There is a well-equipped but small bathroom. Soap, shower/shampoo sachets and shower caps are provided. Two soft normal-sized and two small-sized bath towels.

Next to our room is the lounge equally large, a good place to sit and watch TV. There is no TV in the rooms. Best part of the lounge is the original hand painted ceiling.

This is the perfect hotel at a perfect price €60.

There is internet access in the lobby next to the reception desk, but it is too slow. We went to Aetna International at Via Maqueda 353, just down the road.

In Italy full meals are served in either a trattoria or a ristorante. Generally speaking a trattoria is cheaper and serves home-style cooking. That’s exactly why we went to Enzo’s.

An Italian meal starts with antipasto. It consists of various cold cuts of meat, different types of fish or other seafood, and cold vegetable dishes. We skipped this.

The next course is il primo this may consist of soup, risotto or pasta.
We both had a pasta dish. My husband had Penne Arabiare. Penne is a type of pasta. This was served with a lightly peppered tomato sauce and dusted with parmesan cheese. I had tagliatelli in a creamy basil sauce with fried zucchini and sprinkled with almonds, for which Sicily is famous.

The next course is il secondo which is a meat or fish course. We ordered fish of the day. And although we were told what fish it was we don’t know its name in English. But this was not important it tasted good.

We also ordered contorni, side dishes. We had french fries, and a mixed salad, oil and vinegar are on the table and we mixed our own dressing. There was also freshly cut bread.

This was a perfect meal at a perfect price:
2 coperti (cover charge) €2
1 vino €2
1 aqua €1
2 primi piatti €7,50
2 secondi piatti €13
2 cotorni €3,50

The menu tells you if the food you order is fresh or may be deep frozen., this was the case with a few of the fish dishes and the french fries. I appreciate this very much as it shows exactly what you can expect. Our fish was fresh but the fries were frozen.

The restaurant looks attractive. Downstairs there are five tables. Don’t despair when they are full upstairs there are more. We were the first to go upstairs but soon the others tables filled. it was reassuring to see that there were not only tourists but also locals came for a meal.

The tables are laid with yellow tablecloths covered by checked yellow-green cloths, and yellow paper napkins. It looks very cheerful. The drinks were served with fresh bread with sesame seeds on top. The white local wine was chilled and had a pleasant taste.

Service was very friendly and I can highly recommend this restaurant

Teatro Massimo is in Piazza Verdi at the corner of Via Maqueda and Via Cavour. It is one of the world's largest theatre. Its construction began in 1895 and was completed in 1897.

Are you a moviegoer and you have seen Godfather part III? Do you remember the last scene? It was filmed on the steps leading to the main entrance of the theatre.

These stairs leading up to the entrance are impressive. The interior of the theatre is beyond words. There are guided tours every Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 am to 3.30 pm at €3 per person. You buy your ticket at the reception-cum souvenir desk and wait. At some time you will see a (disorganised) group enter the auditorium and it is best to follow them. Our group consisted mainly of schoolchildren accompanied by lots of teachers. We did not wait for a guided tour in English as they did not know when that would be, and nobody could tell us. There were not many foreign tourists when we were there. When you understand some Italian, it is not difficult to follow the explanation as the guide spoke slowly and clearly.

It is a very short visit, but worth it. All in all it took about fifteen minutes.

First we came to the auditorium. It gives a warm impression. Its main colours are red in different shades. There are five tiers of boxes each with two rows of chairs. The Royal Box is right opposite the stage and has seven rows of chairs. These back rows are not the best places to sit, the music will be muffled. The front row is definitely the best place.

The auditorium is almost round, only the orchestra pit with the stage above it is in a straight line. The seats are not the collapsible type but true armchairs in red plush, joint together. If not the auditorium would be in disorder. On the sides against the boxes lose chairs upholstered in red plush. They had straight backs and didn’t look too comfortable.

Each tier of boxes has its own lobby where drinks are served in the interval. There are mahogany frames around the doors leading to the seats, the walls are decorated with burgundy red silk wall covering.

Right under the dome is the echoing Sala Pomperana all in pink marble, wine red, rich blue and gold. It is now used as a foyer during intervals.

Legend has it that the theatre is haunted. The ghost is a nun who lived in the convent that once stood in this place. But we didn’t see her.

The Cappuccini monks arrived in Palermo early 16th century. The monks buried their dead, one over the other in, in a limestone catacombs. At the end of the 16th century while exhuming the bodies, the monks made a shocking discovery many of the dead had been naturally mummified.

The monks decided to bury one of their recently deceased monks to see if he would be naturally mummified. And he was. Soon the well-to-do Palermo townspeople joined in and were buried in the catacombs.

The bodies were dried for eight months, washed with vinegar and preserved by arsenic baths and quick lime. Then they were dressed in the clothes they had previously provided. They were then displayed in the four corridors of the catacombs.

Rows and rows of bodies line the walls. Some are in individual niches others are in glass or wire netted cases stacked on top of the other. The bodies range from various stages of disintegration to almost lifelike.

The bodies in these corridors are divided into different categories: monks, priests, professors, virgins, men, women and children. Many of them are labelled with the date they died.

In the 18th century the people of Palermo went to the catacombs as a Sunday outing and paid regular visits to their deceased next-of-kin or friends. This way they familiarised themselves with their last resting place. During these visits they could see which people were going to keep them company when their day had come. They could also next to home they would like to be displayed and would try out niches to see if their body would fit.

In 1885 the Sicilian authorities banned the practice of mummification but it did not stop relatives coming to see if auntie Aurora was still in good shape or if she needed wiring together.

The last person to be mummified was a two-year old girl who died in 1920: Rosalia Lombarda. Her lifelike body is preserved in a glass case and she looks as if asleep.

Her mummification process was done with a series of injections. She was the only person who benefited from this method as the doctor who invented this new technique died before he could tell how it was done.

Convento dei Cappuccini can be visited daily from 9 am to noon and from 3 to 5 pm.

Take bus # 327 from Piazza Indipendeza or walk along Via Pindemonte and follow the sign posts. It is a thirty-minute walk.

A Cappuccini monk welcomes you at the entrance. The entrance fee is €2.

Monreale is 8 kms southwest of Palermo. We went there to see the Duomo, the cathedral.

Willem II, King of Sicily founded a Benedictine monastery and a Royal Palace on Mons Regalis, the King’s Mount, hence Monreale. It is the highest spot near Palermo, 300 metres above sea level.

In 1172 the construction of the Duomo began. William decreed that members of the Royal family were to be buried here. You can see their tombs inside, in the isles.

Before we went inside we had a good look at the exterior. We especially liked the portico flanked by two bell towers. The left one was never finished and the right one was struck by lightening in the 16th century. Its copula was never restored. We also admired the bronze door on the portal. It is divided into squares which show biblical scenes, but there are also Norman symbols, such as the lion and the griffon. This is a winged monster with an eagle-like head and the body of a lion.

Walk along the side of the cathedral on the left and you will get to the outside of the apse. This is the domed recess at the altar end of the cathedral. I have seen numerous pictures of it, but the real thing is even more beautiful than I had expected. The exterior of the apse is interlaced marble and tufa arches, interspersed by multicoloured motifs.

Once inside my eyes were drawn to the beautiful wooden sculptured ceiling and right in front above the altar a mosaic of Christ Pancreator flanked by angels and saints. When I was used to the semi-darkness I saw a galaxy of colourful mosaics against a golden background. They were made by Greek and Byzantine craftsmen and occupy the entire nave, aisles, choir. It is just everywhere. I read that it took craftsmen ten years to complete it, but I could not find anywhere how many craftsmen were working on it.

The mosaics illustrate scenes from the Old and New Testaments. They are like comic strips. I especially liked the Noah’s Ark scenes: the building of the ark, shoving in the animals, Noah peeping through the hatches. The more I looked, the more details I saw.

Entrance is free but if you want to see the mosaics illuminated you can switch on the lights by inserting €1 into the many slot machines. But because the cathedral is a recognised coach stop many people will do it for you.

There is a €3 entrance fee to the cloisters. They are part of the Benedictine monastery. The cloisters surround a garden. The cloister’s roof is supported by twin columns with carved capitals, all of different designs.

The town of Monreale is a pleasant place to walk about. There are several baroque churches, but they are closed in the afternoon.

We went by bus from Palermo. From Piazza dell’Indipendenza. We took #389, whch dropped us right in front of the cathedral. They journey took twenty minutes. We bought our bus tickets from a < i>tabacchi in Corso Amadeo. And don’t forget to validate your ticket in the machine when you board the bus.