13 – 15 September 2023
Palermo Blog
Today was a travel day as we left the wonderful region of
Puglia to join our main tour of Sicily.
We flew from Lecce to Palermo, via Rome, arriving in Palermo around 10:30
am where we met the rest of our tour. We
had no organized activities for the rest of the day, so after getting settled
in our room, we walked around the immediate area of our hotel and found a
restaurant for dinner. Roseanna is our
TL (Trip Leader) and she is very organized and extremely helpful. She is also very knowledgeable and passionate
about her job and her country Sicily.
She has traveled the world spending time in the US (Disney World and New
York), France and Australia.
Located on the northwestern coast of Sicily, Palermo is the
capital of the Sicilian region of Italy.
Because of its location in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, over the
centuries, it has been conquered and dominated by the Phoenicians,
Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines,
Arabs, and Normans, before it was finally unified by the Italians into
the mainland of Italy in 1861. Perhaps
no city in Sicily symbolizes the merger of the many cultures that made up
Sicily more than Palermo. And of all the
conquests of Sicily, the one that stands out the most is its Arabic
origins. Palermo’s three main markets are
patterned after Arab souks, with a multitude of food vendors hawking their
cuisine – freshly caught fish, just picked fruit and vegetables, vibrant
Sicilian citrus, spices and wood-oven baked bread – to passerby’s. During the 17th and 18th
centuries, the Baroque architecture was reflected in the civic and church
buildings. Heavily damaged by bombings
during WWII, the reconstructed areas of Palermo add more modern elements to the
cityscape.
The next morning we had a Welcome Briefing by our TL Roseana
and then set out for a tour of the
Monreale Cathedral (Monreale translates into “Royal Mountain”), one of the
greatest examples of Norman architecture.
It is located up on a hill about 5 miles outside of Palermo city center. Begun by King William II in the 1174, it is
perhaps the very best example of Sicily’s Arab/Norman heritage in the whole
region. It is dedicated to the Virgin
Mary and legend says that she came to William in a dream and told him where to
find the hidden treasure with which to build the cathedral. However, it is more likely that King William
II wanted to showcase his wealth and power and have his name remembered in
perpetuity. He also wanted to live up to
the achievements of his grandfather King Roger, who had founded the Cathedral
of Cefalu,
The lower half of the church was constructed by workers from
Istanbul and it shows a very distinctive Moorish influence. But it is the 68,000 square feet of gold Byzantine
mosaics, created by Christian workers who built the upper half of the church,
that are perhaps the most stunning we have seen in any church so far. Around the top of three sides of the church
are mosaics that tell the story of the Book of Genisis while underneath them
are scenes of Jesus’s miracles. Above
the Altar was a deceiving tall portrait of Jesus. As you looked at it, it appeared to be about
5 feet tall. In actuality it is 11 feet
from Jesus’s head to his chest.
The mosaics are absolutely stunning, and very easy to
understand, especially if you have some knowledge of the Book of Genesis. If you are ever in Sicily, this is one church
not to be missed. It was very crowded
with tourists and the drive up the hill to the church is not for the faint of
heart – the roads are jammed with cars going in all directions and there are
long waits to move just a few inches.
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| Monreale Cathedral |
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| Inside the Cathedral |
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| Mosaics in Cathedral |
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| God Creating Eve from Adam |
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| God Introducting Eve to Adam |
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| Eve, Adam and the Serpent |
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| God Banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden |
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| Mosaics in the Cathedral |
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| Large Image of Jesus in the Church's Altar |
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| Moor's Influence in the Church |
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| Moor's Influence on Bottom Half of Church |
After we returned to Palermo, we were joined by a
local guide who took us on a 1 hour walking tour of Palermo. We then walked down to the Porta Nuova. When the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V
(Archduke of Austria, King of Spain, Lord of the Netherlands, and many other
titles) visited Palermo in 1535, he entered the city through the Gate of the
Eagle. The Senate of Palermo were so
thrilled that they commissioned the building of a fancier gate. Finish in 1584, it was given the name
Austrian Gate, but the people of Palermo just called it the New Gate. Unfortunately, it burned down in 1667, so another
gate was built. Entering through the gate into the inner city, the façade is
much like other triumphal arches, while exiting the gate, there are four large
statues with human features of the Moors captured by Charles V on its
façade. As we walked through the arch,
we were serenaded by a man singing opera.
He had a beautiful voice and yet he was singing for whatever donations
people might give.
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| Two of the Defeated Moors |
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| Porta Nuova |
Close
to the gate is the Palazzo dei Normanni (Norman Palace) and its Paletine
Chapel. After the Normans conquered Sicily in 1072,
they established Palermo as their capital.
They then built a castle as the Royal Residence of the Norman kings in
what today is Piazza Independenza. It
was built on the highest point of land in the center of the city over the ruins
of an old Punic settlement and an Arab castle.
The castle complex consisted of several buildings connected by arcades.
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| Norman Palace |
As we walked toward the center of the historic part of the city
our guide pointed out some of the beautiful courtyards that were located inside
some of the old buildings, which once were homes of wealthy residents of
Palermo. Both sides of the street have
beautiful old buildings and the closer you get to the city center, the more
stores you encounter. Although this is
designated as a pedestrian street , you will still find cars (of residents) and
many, many motor scooters that you will need to avoid. By the time we reached the Palermo Cathedral,
the road was very narrow with vendors on the sidewalks and crowds of people
walking in the street (trying to dodge the motor scooters). What a mess.
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| Courtyard of Nobleman's Home |
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| Beautiful Courtyard |
We
only walked by the Palermo Cathedral, stopping briefing to take some
pictures. It is a beautiful church from
the outside. An earlier
church was built on this site, but in 831 the Arab conquerors, who called the
church a great “infidel temple,” turned the church into the Great Mosque. 200 years later, after the Norman Conquest,
the mosque was turned back into a cathedral, and today is the largest Norman
cathedral in Sicily. As a result of its many renovations, its exterior is
a blend of Roman, Greek, Norman, Renaissance, Gothic, Baroque, Rocco, and
Islamic styles. While this eclectic
blend of architectural styles makes for a magnificent and unique exterior, its
interior is rather dull in contrast with the tombs of the kings, the most
decorated part of the interior. As with
a lot we will see and learn in our trip, there is a legend that explains this
contrast and it has to do with the Monreale Cathedral we saw this morning:
The
archbishop who built the cathedral had a contest with the Norman King William
II who had the Duomo of Monreale built during the same timeframe as to which
building would be the most beautiful in the area. The archbishop focused exclusively on the
exterior of his church while King William II chose to focus on his church’s
interior. As to which was declared the
winner is unknown as both are said to have died of heart attacks shortly after
viewing each other’s competition.
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| Palermo Cathedral |
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| Busy "Pedestrian" Street |
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| Church of San Cataldo |
As we walked to our last stop (at least for Bill and I as
the heat and humidity had zapped our energy) we passed an old church that was
build in 1154 – Church of San Cataldo.
Built with a mixture of Arab-Norman architecture, the most striking
thing about the church was its three red domes.
Although an active church today, it spent most of the 18
th
century as a post office.
We then reached Piazza Pretoria, located in the exact
center of Palermo, with its 16th century Fountain of Shame, named
for the statues of naked nymphs, tritons, and leaping river gods that are part
of this fountain. Legend has it that the
nuns from a nearby convent where so dismayed at the scandalous statues that
they snuck out one night and broke off the “offending” parts of the
statue. If they did, the fountain has
since been repaired, because all the parts are there! Originally meant for a private garden in
Florence, it arrived in Palermo in pieces.
When reconstructed, town officials found it was too big for the
piazza. Several of the existing
buildings had to be torn down to accommodate the fountain, but as you can see
in the pictures, there is little room for people to congregate in the
square. Although today an iron fence
surrounds the large circular fountain, it was originally meant to be
entered. There are four sets of steps
leading down from the outer circle of stone to the moat next to the stone
wall. Inside the moat the many fantasy
statues have their mouths open spraying water.
The statue is located in front of the City Hall. The City Hall (or the Palace of the Eagles)
was built between 1463 and 1478 and today is home to the Mayor of Palermo. It also has a small exhibition of weapons
left from the Napoleonic wars and a WW II bomb shelter in its basement that was
built by the fascist regime in the 1930s. A tunnel leads under the piazza and the
chamber, which was designed to hold 500 people, was equipped with running
water, a ventilation system, and three bathrooms. Also squeezed into the square are two
additional palaces – Bonocore Palace and Bordonarao Palace. And the domes of two churches -- Saint
Catherine and Saint Joseph dei Teatini – stand opposite one another and
dominate the skyline of the piazza.
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| City Hall and Fountain of Shame |
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| Piazza Pretoria |
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| Fountain of Shame |
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| Fountain of Shame |
In the late afternoon, we set out on a new and exciting
adventure – a 1 hour tour by Ape (means “bee” in Italian) three-wheeled vehicle
– where we will buzz along the streets and narrow alleyways. We drove along the waterfront and made a stop
in front of a mural of 2 judges who were assassinated by the Mafia for their
attempt to bring the Mafia to justice – Giovanni Falcone and Paola
Barsellino. We then stopped by a 159
year-old Banyan tree, the oldest in Europe.
Along the way to our dinner, we also saw a float that had been used in a
parade celebrating St. Rosina, the patron saint of Palermo. Our tour ended at a restaurant in Palermo
where we had our welcome dinner.
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| Our Ape Ride |
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| Ape Cars Waiting for Us |
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| Mural of the Two Assassinated Judges |
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| Banyan Tree |
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| St. Rosina's Float |
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| Art on a Building |
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| Driving on the Streets of Palermo |
Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye to Larry and
Patrice Stevens. Patrice had taken a bad
fall on her Norwegian Fjord cruise and injured her leg. It was not healing, and they decided that she
could no longer continue and so they were flying home tomorrow.
The next day was A Day in the Life of Castelbuono, a small
town, that like Palermo, is rich in history.
A Day in the Life is a unique OAT event where we interact with the local
people, learning about their lives and family, and in some cases working along
side them as they go about their daily day.
Along the way, we stopped at a cemetery for a rest stop or “pee-pee”
stop as Roseanna calls it. Apparently
it was the only location that had free bathrooms. Well, I’m sure the current residents of the
cemetery did not need one nor did they care if we used one! One thing I forgot to mention about our bus
rides is that on each trip Roseanna has a bag of hard candy (various flavors)
as our treat for the ride.
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| One of the Streets in the Cemetery |
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| One of the Vaults in the Cemetery |
Arriving in Castelbuono, we learned about some of the town’s
more unusual residents – their hard-working donkeys. As the town’s medieval alleys are not wide
enough for cars, the donkeys are used to collect the town’s trash and
recycling. We followed Marta (the
donkey) and her garbage collector on their route and also learned how the town
came up with unique solutions for its garbage collection. Today, they were just collecting paper
trash. When Marta’s 2 baskets get full,
her handler calls for a small truck to come to their present location and they
transfer the trash to the small truck.
Now Marta is smart – she knows that some people along the route will
give her bread. And if she does not get
her bread, she becomes as stubborn as a mule!
So the townspeople make sure she is fed.
Only female donkeys are used, male donkeys are too un predictable (they
are only used for breeding). Each female
is only allowed to one baby and after 10 years of work, they are retired and
live out their lives in a nice green pasture.
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| Marta the Garbage Donkey |
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| Transferring Trash from Marta to Truck |
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| Feeding Marta Bread |
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| Saying Goodbye to Marta |
We then walked up to the14th century medieval castle that
gave Castelbuono its name. In Italian
Castelbuono means “good castle.” Today
the castle is home to the Castelbuono Civic Museum and the castle’s chapel has
a display of medieval art. Leaving the Castle, we walked down the main street of this beautiful quaint medieval town.
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| Castle in Castelbuono |
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| Chapel inside the Castle |
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| Chapel inside the Castle |
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| Chapel inside the Castle |
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| Main Street of Castelbuono |
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| Old Church in the Town's Center |
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| Main Street of Town |
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| Old Buildings in the Town |
In the the town’s square, Piazza Margherita, we were introduced to a baker that makes panettone, a fruit-studded cake
made with manna, a white sap that comes from local ash trees and is used as a
sweetener. These Christmas cakes are
such a delicacy that they are protected against imitations by strict baking
laws including that they must be made with butter and beer yeast. To attest to their popularity, Italian bakes
make over $685 million worth of these cakes each year. We were given not only samples of panettone,
but also some delicious biscuits and and manna.
It was delicious – manna is made into a paste and can be spread like
icing on biscuits, cakes, or cookies. It
is really good!
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| Baker making Panettone |
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| Manna |
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| Cake topped with manna |
We then walked to a small shop run by two sisters who make
jewelry out of items found in nature – seeds, died inside of prickly pear
leaves, stones, shells, bark, etc. She
showed us some of their products and then led us in making out own creation – a
key chain. It was fun, but, I have to
admit, Bill’s was better than mine (but do not let him know I said that)!
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| Working Hard on the Keychain |
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| The end results |
We then walked to a local restaurant for lunch where we enjoyed
some typical Sicilian dishes which included appetizers of dried tomatoes,
eggplant, and local cheeses, with a main course of pasta (again not much meet –
vegetables rule in Sicily). And while we
ate, the owner and a fried serenaded us on the guitar and accordian with
Sicilian songs. It was an amazing lunch
and their local wine was delicious. It
was siesta time on the bus ride back to Palermo.
The next morning, before we left Palermo to drive to Mazara
delle Vallo, we participated in what OAT calls “a Controversial Topic.” This is a relatively new activity that is
part of OAT’s itinerary, and while controversial, they are very interesting and
add to our understanding of the culture and issues that are part of the country
we are visiting.
Today’s topic was the Sicilian Mafia, known as the Cosa
Nostra. As we delved into the headlines,
myths, and legends of this organization, we heard the personal and intimate
experiences from 2 people whose lives were affected by the Cosa Nostra.
Our first speaker was a man named Gino Felicetti, who was
born in Corleone (a town in the municipality of Palermo), but whose family fled
to England when he was 11, after a family member was killed by the Sicilian
Mafia. He came back to Sicily to raise
his family and has become an expert on the criminal nature of this organization. He explained the history of the Mafia from
its roots in the 19th century that sprang from cynicism and distrust
of public institutions. He covered its
rise and spread to America during World War II, and the black shadow it casts
over not only Sicilian businesses, politics and criminal justice, but also the
day-to-day life in Sicily.
However, this was more than just a lecture. As someone whose
life was forever changed by the Mafia early on, and who lives in Corleone
today—where he estimates 10-15% of the population has Mafia ties—he shared his
personal stories of what it’s really like to live shoulder-to-shoulder with
mafiosi in Sicily. He gave us raw, unflinching views of the terrible acts of
violence they are responsible for—such as the 1992 murder of two Italian judges
who led a high-profile anti-Mafia crackdown—and the uneasy peace that exists
between criminals and civilians in everyday Sicilian life.
He was followed by the second speaker, the son of a former
crime boss (in fact his father was the second to last “Godfather” of the Mafia),
who also told us the impact that this has had on not only his childhood, but
his life today. He told of his sheltered
childhood that he and his brothers endured, where he had no friends, could not
go to school, and was forced to move frequently as his father was hunted by not
only the police and media, but also rival mafia gangs. He never knew what his father did, but grew
up believing that his father loved him and wanted to keep him safe.
It was a shock to him, when as an adult, he learned the truth
about his father and the horrendous acts of murder that led to his father being
reviled across Sicily as public enemy number one. Evan today he is still impacted by the sins
of his father as it has affected his ability to find work or to function normally
as a private citizen. He also said that
he grapples with the emotional contradiction of trying to reconcile the man he
loved as a child as his father to the man he now knows ruined countless lives
as a Mafia boss.
This was a tough, emotional topic to listen to, but it gave
us all a better understanding of Sicilian history as it relates to the Mafia –
the ugly truths and destruction that the Mafia has caused and the progress that
is being made by people like our speakers to rid Sicily of the Mafia and more
importantly, what still needs to be done.
Our time in Palermo has come to an end. The city of Palermo is today a beautiful,
vibrant city, with a history rich in architecture and culture. We found the people to be warm and friendly,
and the food is absolutely delicious. The
traffic, on the other hand, can be very trying, frustrating and noisy). As a pedestrian, you have to be extra careful
– cars and motorcycles do not like to stop for you. It may be a one-way street, but certain cars
and buses are allowed to use the far right lane for the opposite
direction. Of course that does not keep
the motorcycles from driving in the opposite direction and heading straight for
you! At intersections and roundabouts,
vehicles merge from all directions. The weather could have treated us better –
it is unusually hot and humid here – at least 20 degrees hotter than it should
be. But as a whole, Palermo has been a
wonderful start to our tour of Sicily and from comments from other travelers
who have taken this trip, this only whets your appetite for what is to follow.
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