Well, if you can’t beat them, join them…we have resigned ourselves to rubbing shoulders with the boat people (cruise ship visitors), independent tourists(lots of French!) and the street vendors!
As we drip our way around the streets of Palermo…stumbling on the sights and sounds and smells (mainly fish and sewerage), we headed deeper inland today, in search of a must see for Jill….the catacombs dei Cappuccini (no not a coffee place)…. But on the way we passed through a street food market…
Along with the usual souvenir “stuff”…this market was full of fish and fresh produce! A big hit to the senses at 9am…
A call with my family back home filled in my market time, while Jill perused the market…and grabbed herself a coffee! I had google mapped the destination to avoid busy roads…and our journey took us up paths less travelled…
Narrow and dusty…but with very little precipitation in the last two months this is to be expected…
A large hotel with planter boxes…a little colour in the otherwise grey and yellow streets of cobbles and sandstone!
As we arrived at our destination point…a funeral was in process, so we had to respectfully skirt around the outside to enter the catacombs….A mere €5 to enter the underground chambers where Sicilian humans have been embalmed and rows and rows of skeletons were on display! Not my cup of tea, but this appeals to Jill’s macabre interest! It was a no photo zone….and seriously why would you?
That done…we headed back towards town as we were now a couple of kms out of the town centre….
Passing through the historic gate into the old town of Palermo…and to our right the palace….
Which is also an exhibition hall, currently showing a collection of impressionist paintings…
By none other than “Monet”
The queues…and the marching processions of boat people meant it would be another frantic run around and one, by this time, we were not in the mindset to handle! The foremost thought in our minds was a cold drink and snack as we had skipped breakfast to get an earlier start!
We walked on, downtown to our tried and tested cafe, with brilliant cocktails (at 11.45an!!!!) and a plate of bruschetta to share…the cocktails were so good, we had to take a second one!
Next attraction….was the No Mafia Museum…
Cool off time before entering into the world of the Sicilian mafia Story…from the 1950s…to the 1980s…all those who tried to stop these drug running, criminal, controlling families and all those who lost their lives (brutally) trying to expose and put a stop to mafia activity in the 1900’s….
Photographed and journaled for future generations!
The gangs of the time…
While the end of this era appeared to happen in the late 1980’s… a lot of innocent lives were lost on the way! And is it over?
Some incredible images captured and shared!
Another deep interest of Jill’s, I left her to it as I was now feeling rather dehydrated and retreated back to our air conditioned room before I threw up!
A couple of hours to bring the body temperature down…and we are good to go again….last day in the town tomorrow- the town with so much going on….
All who wander are not Lost girls 