San Paolo Palace 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.

<br>Palermo and the Sicily area<br><br>I absolutley loved Sicily. Palermo is a rough looking city where cars and mopeds try and hit you and nearby is beautiful beaches and towns. However, someone just stole my legendary Bubba Gump Shrimp hat on the bus so I am very very upset and angry!<br><br>Boat from Naples to Palermo<br><br>To start I got the overnight boat from Naples to Palermo. It was a ******* to find. There were no real signs or anything to find the boat and for some reason ...

... 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>

... est ravissante. Malheureusement, les horaires nous empêchent d'en savoir plus sur elle. Petit tour en direction des places Pretoria et Bellini entourée des San Giuseppe, Caterina et du Palazzo Pretorio pour la première, et dece même palazzo et des Martorana et San Cataldo pour la seconde. Les deux sont très belles de nuit comme de jour et incontournables ! La rentrée se fait pr la Via Maqueda ...

... a clue what he wants' but I ask for a coffee and a grappa in Sicilian, and sit there and have them at the bar, just me and her as there's no one else about. I think about uncle Tony - he was a presence all my life until now and I hadn't realised how fond I was of him. He had a very good sense of humour and was quite a calm, collected man. Once when I was young and helping out at his fruit and vegetable shop (Heidelberg Fruit Palace in Burgundy Street) he showed several cases of peaches ...

... recent Syracuse entry is their triskelion (from the Greek "three-legged") flag. The triskelion is one of the oldest symbols known to mankind and Sicily's, who's dates back to 1282 has a Medusa face smiling out of the crutch. The Isle of Man's flag, dating from the mid 1700s also features a triskelion but without the pretty face. There you go - thanks to dad for sending that through.