Sicilia

Palermo was such a different city than what I am used to, than what I was expecting, that I'm having a hard time figuring out how to explain my impressions during the few days I spent there. While this trip has sentimental reasons for me because of my family's roots, Palermo is no where near Mineo or even Catania. Yet the city held promise of amazing history- ancient, medieval and recent- and of learning about a group of people I am interested in, the Sicilians. They are perhaps as complex as my feelings about the capital itself. I do know that I would really like to visit other parts of Sicily.

I felt like Palermo was my first contact with a real city in Italy- I've been to Rome and Florence, but mostly the tidy historical districts, with only little tastes of urban life- Palermo's historical buildings were peppered among huge commerical buildings, bad neighbordhoods, bombed out buildings from the Allied Invasion of WWII and typical dirty city streets. Mark and I were the only people staying in our hostel, which was very clean and its staff helpful, and definitely the only tourists on the street. We stand out all over Italy, though, so this was normal. We are not, however, Americans, according to everyone who meets us, but Spanish. Our funky dressing styles have turned out to be similar to that of the typical Spaniards.

We flew into the Falcone Borsellino Airport, which has been named after two prominent and effective Anti-Mafia judges who were murdered by the Mafia within two months of eachother. There was then a picturesque train ride to the real city, which was actually quite far away. Our hostel turned out to be on the street with all of the bars so there was activity all through the night. The first day we braved the public bus system to find the calcio stadio (soccer stadium) to buy tickets for Sunday's highly anticipated game: Palermo verso Catania. On our way back, we found an attractive English garden park- with a mini carnival for kids (the first of three we saw this weekend). Saturday was our busy day. We woke up for a breakfast of cannoli and cappuccini and went to see the Catedrale of Palermo.

The Cathedral was built in 1185 on a Byzantine church built by St. Gregory that had later been turned into a mosque by the Saracens (such is the story of every historicla building of Palermo).
The church was revised and added onto until the 1800's, and the interior demonstrated this. It also had a simple heliometer (look it up!).

We then took a bus to Monreale, a little town near Palermo. I had heard that Monreale looked back at the city and the sea, and the views didn't disappoint. It was perched on the side of a mountain and had the most beautiful church I've ever seen. The interior was completely covered with mosaics- Arab and Byzantine designs, and nearly all of the Bible stories.

On the other side of the city, we found the Palermo beach, called Mondello. The sand was very soft and luxurious, but it wasn't warm enough to do anything beyond dipping a finger in the Mediterranean. I had the fruitiest gelato ever- lemon, strawberry and watermelon and enjoyed the view of the sea and the mountains of Sicily.

Sunday we went to the Catacombs of Palermo, only to find that they were unfortunately closed on Sundays during the winter. I was pretty sad about that. Later in the day, we saw the soccer match. The atmosphere was worth the price of the tickets which was good, because the game was horrrrrrendous. At one point I was sure that Palermo had scored a goal on themselves. They might as well have. It was very entertaining, however, to watch everyone else around us lose their minds. The fans engaged in stadium-wide chants, but as the Palermo players started playing poorly, enthusiasm dropped, and stadium-wide anger was adopted. They eventually booed the players out of the stadium. I thought it was pretty funny, because it completely confirmed the stereotype of the short Sicilian temper.

This was also true in terms of crossing the street. Like Rome, cars do not stop for pedestrians, regardless of crosswalks. We just kind of had to Frogger across. However, on the off chance that someone stopped for us, if we weren't already walking by the time he stopped his car, he would throw up his hands, start swearing at us, or honking. Also, the #1 sound in Palermo was definitely the horns. I also saw whole lot of cars with busted parts.

On the whole, everyone we met was very nice. Unfortunately, I can't understand Sicilian at all, and when people spoke the dialect to me, I had no clue as to what they were saying. Another issue that we had happened while we were seated in a ristorante. Like everything in the city, the doors were open to the night. Yet the ristorante owner and staff allowed these men to come in: they were all Indian or Pakastani or Bangladeshi, and sold trinkets and cheap plastic things aggressively. We were used to this from the streets, but were insulted to be interrupted while eating, and especially in an establishment.

I enjoyed myself a lot, however, on this vacation. I am really glad that I went to Sicily and here at home I keep reading about its history and the layers and layers that envelope the island.