Day 26 - Sicily (Palermo), Italy

This morning we arrived in Palermo, Italy. It is Sicily's cultural, economic and tourism capital. It is a city rich in history, culture, art, music and food and apparently, is the most conquered city in the world. The population of Palermo is approximately 850,000 while the island of Sicily is about 4.8 million. WOW - what a difference from every other port so far…crowded, traffic, horns, lots of yelling, dirty…a little bit intimidating actually. As I mentioned yesterday, our bike tour was cancelled and while I was ok doing a bike tour with a guide, I wasn’t sure I wanted to try it without one, so we decided to walk the city. Our first point of interest was the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele di Palermo, Italy’s largest opera house, opened May 16, 1897. Next we walked through La Vucciria market, filled with fish mongers and other delights. Headed down a narrow lane way, turned a corner and voila…the Palermo cathedral, one of the most important architectural monuments in Sicily. It was built in 1184 by the Normans on a Muslim Mosque. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the streets in old town. We came upon The Quattro Canti (the Four Corners) which is a square at a historic crossroads in the centre of Palermo. Paul captured a really cool picture of the four buildings at each of its corners. Next, we walked by the Fontana Pretoria and piazza. Figured we’d covered sufficient ground and that when in Italy, you MUST eat pizza…so we did. We found a cute little place down from the Teatro Massimo and ordered a diavola pizza, with a side of that’s amore, courtesy of the local accordion player. We continued to just meander up and down the streets again and then back to the ship to do some laundry and preliminary packing. Lovely pre-dinner drinks and chatter, and then dinner and chatter with the Aussies…what a great group of people with wonderful stories. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know them.❤️Read more