Hotel Ponte Palermo

partie de palermo pour aller a monreale! nous avons vue la cathedrale de cette petite ville. les murs et le plafond sont couvert de mosaic faite en grande partie avec le l'or. puis de cette ville on avait une belle vue sur la baie de palermo.

ensuite, de retour a palermo pour se rendre a l'aeroport puis prendre un vol pour rome. ou nous somme maintenant.

... eu un service incroyable, on doute meme que le personnel soient italient tellement ils etaient fin!

finalement, a la tomber du jour, ou l'heure de l'apero et des tapas en italie la ville commence a vivre, nous avons gouter au marons chaud puis a quelques tapas avant de rentrer !

... do 4 point turns a couple of times...
I was driving like a local once we got back to Palermo city that night though... not giving way, pushing in, and driving like a maniac!!

Highlight of the day was getting to Corleone since Laura, Jay and myself are big fans of the Godfather movies.
We got to Agrigento about 5pm and it was dusk so only saw the temple ruins that were lit up by lights.
Was still good though and an awesome day ...

... br>


We spent obligatory time in the souvenir shops, deciding on unique gifts for friends & 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.


As we drove into & 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 & watching over the city), the plague was no more!?


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 ...

... like one imagines it might have almost 1000 years ago! Small, narrow, cobbled streets suitable only for pedestrial traffic these days, but once the routes for small carts drawn by horse, abound (you can still see rows of wider pavers marking where the cart wheels were positioned in days gone by).

Lovely old churches, shops, eateries, etc everywhere....had a nice lunch where we sampled famous local almond/sugar sweets (really good stuff!) On the day we were there, an ...

... around in a Nissan Micra (ideal for navigating the amazing traffic flows thru the city...no lanemarking!) to main piazzas, cathedrals, theatres, the old port, the original 4-way intersection at the centre of the ancient city......incredible structures built to last!



Only 8 kms outside the city we drove to the elevated village of Monreale....location of an amazing cathedral which features one of the most impressive & vast uses of ...

... except that it means is that we'll see Ancient Greek ruins from the 8th century BC, and Norman castles from the 12th century. Phoenician ruins and Baroque architecture. We'll we'll eat lemons and olives and pistachios that were grown with the benefit of Arab irrigation techniques from the 900's, that will be combined with seafood that has been a mainstay of a culture continuously for 2500 years. We'll smell the spices ...

Today i arrived in Sicily. Again, I arrived with no lodging arranged. fortunately I got a flier from a guy outside the train station for a hostel that was 20 (Euro) a night. I got here and its a univeristy dorm hall that they open up during the summer when the students are gone. Aside from not having AC its great and ...

... which wasn't really notable in the slightest, other than the laundry owner trying to overcharge us. "You did not give me a 10€! I cannot be mistaken! It is not possible!" That phrase gets used a lot here, and I think they think it means something different than I think it means. We are always being told that things are "not possible." Case in point will be made later. While we took turns watching the laundry, we both went out and ...