Grand Albergo Sole Palermo

WE depart Sicily with wonderful memories of sunny skies, blue Mediterranean seas, green hillsides covered with grape vines and olive trees, old cities, castles and greek temples, and of course good food. <br>We will see more sights in Rome, and then travel down the coast to Sorrento and Amalfi. I will post more about the things we are doing and seeing as we continue our trip.

... The girls are all glamorous and everyone instantly knows you are a tourist because you wear shorts. There is people with Horse taxis and the horses don't look well looked after and through in a wild dog or two. There is markets selling Back to the Future 2 on video cassette and old tape cassette stereos for cars. Next to that is a rusty screw driver. But, I actually really like Palermo. It is real and not overly touristy.<br><br>Cefalu, Mondello and Aggrigento<br><br>I was ...

... br><br><br><br>We spent obligatory time in the souvenir shops, deciding on unique gifts for friends &amp; family, and saw video footage of previous lava flows which seemed to engulf the very tourist spot we were standing in!! After meeting up with Marco again, we descended the volcano using a different but equally winding roadway towards the north, allowing us to access nearby Taormina.<br><br><br>As we drove into &amp; up the beautiful approaches to this famous holiday town ...

... s remains were taken through the streets (she had been known as a holy woman when she lived her life in isolation on the mountain, praying &amp; watching over the city), the plague was no more!?<br><br><br>The grotto we got to see on Mont Pellegrino obviously held much more favour with locals who still take offerings to the Saint, and we could see evidence of jewellery, money, etc inside a glass-walled shrine where a likeness of Santa Rosalia has been setup.....quite ...

... loose underfoot, with numerous places to slip or tiwst one's ankle, especially given the large number of elderly tourists we saw making the trip.<br><br>Next, we were off to the town of Trapani, right on the coast, with part of the older section jutting out in a spit into the two adjoining seas. Drove past &amp; thru vast expanses of salt pans where salt production has been carried on commercially for centuries (surprised to find out from Salvo that the entire process ...

... tiles in the world....truly something to see, and the views across Palermo &amp; the nearby coastline were very nice as well.<br><br><br><br>A morning well spent, and well worth the money, as we saw &amp; learnt so much more than tourists travelling by themselves would expect to. We walked to local trattoria for a late lunch, then stocked up on supplies at the nearby supermercato, before snacks &amp; rums for tea and an early night!<br><br><br><br><br>

... a look, a big deal! Not! cuz we get into a doubtful neighborhood with a lot of strange people who looked at us thinking WTF are they doing here... after a few moments of fear we remember that as a funny situation, even so, we really enjoyed Palermo.<br>

... couldn`t walk as they were handicaped. Therefore, I ran like a chicken around the place, found a cab, went with the driver to pick the guests up and took them to the ship. In the evening a few of the guests came to the photo gallery to say to me thank you. <br>The strangest thing though was when I heard from the shore excursions manager and was supposed to speak to her. I found out the guests complaint about me on the trip... Heyyyy but that was NOT ME who left them behind, and ...

... two. We troopers decide to see if the gay bar is open tonight, since it is just around the corner, and it sure is! Crowded. A young and gorgeous crowd. Everyone out on the street. Only can go inside if you have to use the toilet. We enjoy chatting and people-watching until 12:15am, then head for the hotel. It will be difficult to top today, but we will see what tomorrow has in store! Hugs, Dan

... set out. We wandered over to the cathedral, HUGE!!!!!! And the exterior was amazingly ornate. We skipped the Castle, it just didn't look that interesting, and finally found one of those street stalls we were reading about, and dropped in for a Panino e pannelle, which basically is a few really thin deep fried patties made of chick peas in a bread roll, a fancy chip sandwich of a kind. It was delish!! We then jumped on the bus to Monreale which ...