Palermo
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
53
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Palermo,
Italy
Friday, October 28, 2005
We arrived in Palermo by night train. It wasn't as comfortable as other night trains and I didn't sleep as well as usual. For some reason the conductor woke us up an hour and a half before the train arrived although we were mostly awake anyway. At least it gave us a chance to watch the sun rise over the water. This is the second train (both in Italy) that has run along the beautiful coast. It makes me wonder why houses weren't there instead.
The owner of the B&B let us have an early check-in, met us at the train station, and drove us to the B&B. He even offered us some pastries. After briefly unpacking we went for a quick walk around town, mostly seeing the beautiful cathedral from the outside. Then we went to a nearby town to the beach and lunch
Beach at Cefalù
. It was a perfect day to sunbathe and float. That night the B&B owner gave us a brief (but not brief enough) tour of Palermo with his other two guests, one from Sicily and the other from Switzerland.The next day we hiked to the cappuchin catacombs where they had 200 year old mummies hanging on the walls. It was very creepy and we were all ready for something a bit lighter when we left.
Taking a cab was a bit difficult and we thought we had plenty of time so we took the metro to the dock. It didn't get us very close so we still had to hike quite a way with our luggage. At one time we had to cross an extremely busy street on foot. If that wasn't bad enough we realized we made a mistake and had to cross it again. Dennis was sure we would all be flattened but we somehow survived. At the port we made it to our ship with an hour to spare but was told we needed to get a boarding card from the office that was about 1km away. Ugh! I was elected to run down there where I had to wait in line for half an hour and run back to the ship. We made it with a few minutes to spare.
Palermo (Kim)
We caught the night train from Rome around 8PM
Catacombs
. Our ride would take us 12 hours. This was more than plenty of time to get a little rest if we could manage on the moving train. The four of us shared a 4 person couchette. I was excited about getting slippers. I wasn't expecting too much as I've heard mostly bad stories about Italian trains. This turned out to be one of the better sleeper exeperiences for me. Giorgio, the host of our bed and breakfast, picked us up from the train station and checked us in by 9AM. We liked this touch on his part. Staying at Giorgio's place is as much about Giorgio as it is visiting Palermo. He is very friendly and offers tours to guests. The place is basic - more like a homestay. We met some of the other guests that morning. One had a tip to check out the beaches in Cefalu. We were feeling a bit tired from the train ride and thought a beach sojourn might be the best thing. We walked about Palermo getting back to the train station. On the way we saw the Palace of the Normans that was built by William II in the 12th century.
Cefalu has some famous ruins on the cliff. These ruins are of Roman origin and alleged to be the Temple of Diana where the cult of Hercules was said to worship. I was primarily interested in relaxing on the beach. I think all of us were on the same page with this goal
Dave Enjoys a Cannolli
. After a nice lunch at an Italian/Seafood restaurant we rested for a few hours in the Sicilian sun. There is some people watching to be done if you are into thongs and men in speedos. I fell asleep and skipped this activity. Dave and his mom skipped rocks on the water and Dennis did his part to relax with a nap as well. All in all one of the best spent afternoons :)That evening we took Giorgio up on his offer to take us on a tour of Palermo. He walked us and several other guests around the city to see the sights for more than 2 hours. We saw churches, mosques, castles...really a bit much to cram into the walk and we were all feeling a bit tired. The best part of it all for me was just simply chatting with the other guests. My great grandfather was from Siciliy. I found out his surname - Casale means "Factory Place" in Italian. I also found out the name originates from a small town near the North Eastern tip of Messina. Later in the evening the four of us shared a pizza back in the B&B.
The next day our plan was to catch the ferry in the evening. We had a full day to look around Palermo some more. Since we had missed the catacombs in Paris we thought we might check out the Sicilian version.called the Capuchin's Catacombs. I was expecting an ossuary with a few bones
Pizza
. Instead this place is housing mummies hanging off the walls! They date back to 1599 when priests wanted to perserve their monks in order to pray to them after death. Some of the corpses are only bones while others still have skin, eyes, and hair! It was very creepy!!After touring around the Catacombs we needed to retrieve our things from Giorgios and figure out how to get to the Ferry. We took Palermo's rudimentary metro to the furthest point we could before walking the rest of the way to the Port. The short walk was on a busy thoroughfare so we spent much time dodging cars. We weren't entirely sure exactly where we needed to go but where we ended up wasn't it. The Port has several ticket offices and the one for foot passengers was a couple kilometers from the actual ferry. Dave left us at the ferry and jogged there and back with our tickets. The foot passenger entrance to the ferry was scheduled to close. We anxiously waited and Dave jogged up with seconds to spare with our tickets. Another near miss! Once on the boat we settled into our separate cabins to relax for the all night ride to Naples.
