Hotel President 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.

... 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 ...

... the hot sun and also from a couple of rain showers! The local pizza was to die for!!<br><br><br>We had time after lunch to saunter thru more picturesque streets before finally meeting up with Marco for the 2.5 hr drive back along the northern coastline to Palermo. Another wonderful day, finished off by 45 minutes of peakhour traffic from city outskirts to our hotel! A real shame that our time in Sicily was at an end....4.45am wakeup call arranged for tomorrow morning departure.<br><br><br>

... place with solid tmber pews arranged inside a rock cave, all covered by a facade which looks from the outside like a white church entrance.<br><br>There were some striking views over the city &amp; coastline from the very windy access road to the top.<br><br>As we arrived back in the city centre, ready for the brief walk to our hotel, a thunderstorm got the better of us and we were wet by the time we arrived at the lobby! Nothing for it but some rumbos and another early night!

... inlet of raw sea water to eventual harvest takes almost 2 years!) Trapani also produces a lot of vineyards &amp; olives.<br><br>Not far from Trapani, we commenced our ascent of a very large &amp; high mountainous outcrop, atop of which sits the medieval town of Erice....stunning views over Trapani &amp; the surrounding coastline!! Old Norman castles (around 11th century) sit precariously at the very edge of the cliffs as you approach on foot.<br><br>The old town looks ...

arrived around 8pm at airport &amp; sped (120kph) to hotel by recent model Mercedes! checked in &amp; walked down street to Trattoria for late tea of authentic pizza (delicious!)<br><br><br><br>Next Morning, we were picked up by our personal giude for the morning, Valentina. Well educated, spoke excellent English plus great knowledge of history &amp; architectural styles made for a fascinating morning around the old city.<br><br><br><br>Valentina drove ...

If you have doubts whether the mafia is still working... I don't.<br>Palermo is a charming mediterranean city, his highlights are so great, his Cathedral is amazing, but try not to get lost in the streets... we saw a peculiar street market and we decided to ...

... I love CouchSurfing.com Wherever in the world you are and you need friends/free accomodation/somebody to make you familiarized with the new place, with CS you can find such person. You`ll post a forum message for a goup from certain place and you`ll wait wait for somebody`s reply. In such way I found Khaled, with whom I roamed around Alexandria, Egypt. Interesting personality, a nuclear engineer - he said he ...

... people get off - except me who didn't think quickly enough - eg I could have told them my cousin was a councillor - yes, Gaspare got elected). Later that same day there are the same number of people riding around Floridia without a helmet as before - around 50%. <br>At the post office a young man introduces himself as he was booked at the same time as me (for the same offence) and saw me at the police station and overheard I was travelling around Sicily and writing about it. Davide ...

... I could almost imagine the gods shaping the golden surrounds, pinching the earth into short, sharp peaks that punctate the dark fertile plains and low rolling hills. It also put many of the modern towns and cities that still exist today into a historical context, and greatly increased my desire to head south to Tunisia (once Carthage) from here instead of heading north and ...