Mondello Palace 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.

apres un peu plus de 3 heures a sillionner la sicile, nous somme arriver a palerme. une ville qui ressemble plus a naples qu'a syracuse.. C'est dimannche, tout est fermer, nous avons eu du mal a trouver de quoi se faire a souper, mais nous somme finalement tomber sur une petite boucherie ou nous ...

... 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 ...

... were taken by the spectacular views of buildings littering the sides of the steep slopes above, and each twist & turn of the road revealed even more pretty views, either below or continuing above......all the sharp turns and accompanying rocky confines of the road were covered by various forms of greenery, making for a truly lovely spot.


Here, as at Etna, we were left to our own devices by Marco, who informed us we had 2.5 hrs to discover Taormina on foot....we ...

... only 20 minutes out of the city centre, Mondello appeared to us to be a sleepy, quiet, pretty place, certainly around mid-morning on a Monday!


Mondello is also a fishing village, and there was no shortage of boats moored en masse opposite the main square. Small stalls were selling freshly caught fish, and huge gulls hovered, swooped & ran in groups along this portion of the shore to grab any scraps or morsels they could.

While strolling along the ...

... agricultural land....outstanding vantage points where the ancient peoples cited their towns (so as to see enemies far away, and also to make a show of might & strength)


We walked all around the temple, then took one of the buses which run every half hour up the nearby hill to the summit, where the theatre & old town ruins are sprawled across it. BTW, the path to the temple, from the car/bus parking area, while quite wide, was somewhat precarious in ...

... 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 ...

21 - 22 February 2009 Palermo I managed to get some sleep on the train and woke up with about an hour to go until reaching Palermo. After arriving I found a map to purchase and set out to find my hotel and drop off my bag. I did not know how big of a problem this was going to be at the time, but I soon found out. When originally booking my hotel the address was listed as being in Palermo. After hours of walking and texting a friend in ...

... But it was OK. Turns out musso is cuts of cartiledge from around the jawbone and of the knees of a pig! I think I will stick with the cheeses. We enjoyed a few bottles of sicilian wine and everyones company. To my surprise most everybody spoke very good english and we discussed everything from politics to off the beaten path things to see while in Sicily. Soon it was time for prima paitti ...

Had a nice sleep. I didn't want to wake up! I was dreaming about Chinese food. Dim sum ... mmm ... mmm ... For breakfast, I walked to a bakery. Sadly, no dim sum was available :( I had a cream-filled croissant. It was only OK. But then I had a little bit of hazelnut heaven - a hollow tube stuffed with chocolate hazelnut cream. It was sweet, but delectable. I wanted to sit and have a coffee with it, but I didn't have ...