Fiesta Hotel Garden Beach Campofelice di Roccella

... in Palermo. But I made friends with a couple of German girls (Simone and Lizsa) and a Brazilian guy (Bruno) and we did day trips around the city. Palermo is a weird place. The buildings are all falling apart and there is rubbish everywhere. It's full of crazy drivers who don't let anyone cross the street. Crossings and lights mean nothing. You just have to walk in front of moving traffic and make them stop for you. Lots of people in the streets look poor but all the shops look very ...

... climb to get some of the most amazing views of the city below. Also it is a nice place to escape from the crowds below.
It was here that the Arabs built there town until the Norman conquest in 1063, forced the locals down from the mountain to the port below.

As our day was winding down to its end we noticed that the Gelati Festival was just setting up. *******s!

Tomorrow our Sicilian adventure continues as we head to Catania.

After our horrendous train ride and not to mention nearly floating away in Sorrento we have made it to sunny Palermo.

When you arrive Palermo it is a contrasting mix of decay and splendor. You see this from the moment you leave the station. You have dirty smelly alley ways and grand old palaces, with there scars still evident from the bombings in WWII. Palermo is also home to the largest Opera house in Italy and third largest in Europe.

The ...

... paying even less attention to the rules. Stop signs and one-way street signs are a mere suggestion, yield signs are a joke. During that short trip our driver went the wrong way down two one-way streets to avoid traffic snarls. And when he was met by oncoming traffic, he simply drove up onto the sidewalk, scraping his fender on the marble steps of some ancient building. He actually had a button he could push to make ...

... our hotel and relaxing, but our expectations were quickly revised.

That we even found the place was a feat as there was no sign. But we found the address and then a small label with the hotel's name on it over a doorbell outside of a 12' tall ancient wooden double doors with no doorknobs or handles. We rang the hotel's buzzer and though there was no response we heard an electronic switch sound, so we knew we'd been let in ... if only we knew how to ...

... after seeing so many. Our cruise is almost over - only one more
port tomorrow. Julie has already started packing. We bought some
mosaics in Tunisia yesterday to go with the other trinkets collected
along the way - not sure where it is all going to go...

We left Letojanni in the Taormina region for Palermo. We had a long bus ride with a few stops at the Auto Grill. It is becoming everyones favorite site on the road. Restrooms, Coffee, Snacks, and a chance to stretch, we're happy. We arrive in Palermo for lunch and Roberta guides us to a nice restaurant with great food. We ate Lasagna. It was fabulous but we still had room for a little dessert, cannolicche. Then we ...

We drove back to Palermo, form Syracuse via Enna. Very hot in the middle of the island when we stopped for a wee break. We got hammered for excess lugage by windjet again this time we paid for 6kg extra. Flight to Rome was uneventful, On the train into central we got a text from Juan saying Denis had her bag stolen ion Bologna ...

Palermo - Hauptstadt Siziliens, Mafia-Hochburg, Rauschgifthandel, Gewalt und Mord. Das sind meine ersten Gedanken, wenn es um Parlermo geht. Immerhin gab es hier in den 80ern zu "Hochzeiten" alle drei Tage einen Mafiamord. Aber sind auch heute noch alle Sizilianer Gauner, Gangster und Ganoven?

Nein, die Zeiten sind zum Glück vorbei und Palermo ist mittlerweile in der Verbrechnsstatistik nicht mehr unter den ersten 15. Aber bis das Image und der weltweite Ruf dem ...

... with sauces (pumpkin sauce!!!!). A fish platter had a wonderful sampling of several offerings while the meat platter contained beef, pork, and hand made sausage. Franco convinced us we had to try the wine from Etna so we each had a taste (none of us being wine drinkers). But our favorite was a lemon liquor....it started out slow and then gave your whole body a warm glow....and that was just the first sip! Franco then gave us a bottle of the Etna wine as a gift. It rained the ...