Palermo - Little Italy

  Palermo, Italy
Sunday, June 11, 2006

Palermo turned out to be that place you imagined Italy to be when you thought of it as a little kid. There were outdoor markets in the alleys and wash on the line behind every building and ornate, cathedralesque buildings on the main streets. We give Palermo a thumbs-up.



After sleeping so poorly on the train, we wandered around Palermo for awhile trying to find some place that served breakfast other than pastries. (Sarah's irrational theory that eating too many pastries in one day is bad kicked in again.) After we failed miserably at that, we stopped at La Primavera for lunch, which was right by the Regina Hotel that we were staying at. In keeping with our recent goal to drink at least two liters of water apiece every day, we ordered so much water with our pasta that we actually made ourselves sick on it. Mental note: It is not necessary to drink the entire two liters in one sitting. So we went back to the hotel around 2 pm, and our room was finally ready. They had been saying it was "almost ready" since 11 am. We immediately threw ourselves in bed to sleep off the water, after reading a sign promising "free maps and depliants," and turning to the dictionary to try and puzzle out a meaning for that one. I'm still in the dark, as "depliants" isn't even Italian. They don't pluralize with "s."

That afternoon, we went out to do laundry, 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 wandered through the market streets nearby, and both got independently lost. I was nearly so lost that I had to call Sarah and tell her to give me a few minutes, when I turned the corner and found myself behind the laundry building. One thing we have noticed is that unlike Naples, the boys here are much more restrained in their whistling/yelling/hissing/clicking noises. They may be more polite, or their mothers may be right there working with them. We're not sure.



Since we'd wasted the entire morning and most of the afternoon, we decided to follow my guide book's advice and go to Mondello, "where the young people go at night," and hang out on the beach with the nightclubs, such as they are. We got showered and made up and hitched a ride on the appropriate bus (dangerous in Sicily, since the drivers get commission for catching and fining people) to the square, singing all the while since we were so happy to finally have clean clothes. We looked around for a place to actually buy a ticket out to Mondello, and walked up to the nearest ticket/security booth. I asked for tickets for the next bus to Mondello. The man tells me it is not possible, and the bus is finished. I look at the sign of times, back at him, and wistfully say "nine o'clock?" He tells me that I may take that bus, if I am willing to wait 10 minutes.

See? There is a vast difference between "It is not possible!" and "Please wait ten minutes." Just to make sure, I have looked up the dictionary definition of "impossible" and "possible" in Italian, and they are identical to the English definitions, so I guess it's more of a contextual difference.

At any rate, we then asked to buy tickets for the nine o'clock bus. He tells us that that is finished, and we cannot buy them anywhere, since the tobacco shops are closed. Though the buses run for another three to five hours, there is nowhere to buy tickets. By this time, we really aren't shocked by weird transportation policies, and turned around to go down the first street that looked interesting in the direction of our hotel.

We found some dinner (unmemorable, evidently, as I have no idea what it was) and a bar that had an internet point. The only music they would play was Creedence. Also typical Italy. The only places with Italian music are those that cater to tourists.

We stroll home, I trip while trying to look at my watch in the dark on the cobblestones and give myself a marble burn, and manage to make our curfew. Oh, yeah. Our hotel keeps the room key whenever you go out and has a curfew of midnight. Not thrilled with that. I run around like a loon for the next hour, since I'd had a cappuccino at the bar, then collapse. We don't have many pictures of Palermo, for no very good reason, but Sarah got a couple of one of the ornate buildings and part of the street market. I wish we'd had more time to spend and explore in Sicily in general, and Palermo in specific. I also would've liked to see Siracusa, Agrigento, and Taormina, but because of the "underground train" problem in Naples, we lost a day in there. I don't know if the Old World Italy flavor holds true everywhere in Sicily, or just in Palermo.