Our first day in Palermo was really late arvo and evening so we just got our bearings went to the supermarket and bought water, beer, wine and snacks. So second day we did a big walk around heaps of sites walking around 17klms, they soon mount up when you are on the move. After breaky at our B&B off we went firstly to Teatro Massimo which was a lovely theatre built in the late 1800s, scenes from the Godfather were shot here, then Capo Market, I love markets its like the life of any town or city you visit, The Palmero Cathedral, Palace of the Normans or Royal Palace, onto Ballaro Street Market, which is bigger than Capo, Porta Nuova near the Palace of the Normans its a monumental city gate which is something else, truly impressive works of art with 4 statues on it, Casa Professa Church (which is right near our B&B), Pretoria Fountain, Quattro Canti (Four corners) and its very impressive having four curved walls facing into the centre of the intersection! In between all this we grabbed a panini which was delicious, nothing like the paninis at home, just beautiful crunchy rolls with yummy fillings of fresh
meats and cheese, loads of different fillings and are only under 3 euro a go, and a couple of beers to wash it all down! John saw this panini place also did mixed grill at night so that was our dinner destination. Later in the afternoon we were walking passed Casa Professa Church and a wedding was just finishing up, WOW what special place to get married. Palermo is a big city and there are loads of tourists but it doesnt feel really, really busy and you can keep your eyes on everything and not in crushes of people, pickpockets apparently are rife here in Palmero but as yet we havent experienced it! While having our delicious mixed grill we hear music and ascertained it was a live band playing somewhere, after dinner we went to explore into the adjoining piazza and there they were, playing our sort of music and it was packed, managed to get a beer and finally a seat after someone left and snuggled in for the night, it was great but there were quite a few colourful people there and decided not to push our luck and left about 10pm. EXHAUSTED after our big day!
Wednesday after breakfast decided to see the exquisite Monreale Cathedral, its probably 10klm or more out of Palermo so caught the bus there, it was really something else, the town is perched high up on the hillside overlooking Palermo. The cathedral is nothing like anything we have seen so it was worth the trip and the town was very quaint. Monreale Cathedral is one of the greatest exisiting examples of Norman architecture, it started to be built in 1174. The mosaics are totally amazing and cover 6500 square metres, mind boggling! Very glitzy with loads of gold leaf having been used as well as all the mosaics. Anyway it was stunning and we are glad we made the effort to go up on the packed like sardines public bus with sweat running out of all the pores in our skin!!! There are also some lovely shops around the streets of Palermo and John has managed to buy a couple of Thursday we decided to take the bus out to Mondello Beach, its about 10 or so klms out of Palermo, glad it isnt in the MIDDLE of summer, we were packed like sardines again and had to stand all
the way, squashing everyone around us! Its a lovely beach with lots of private beach clubs and boy do they make a fortune 25 euro a day for a seat and umbrella, but there is quite a bit of public beach as well so could find a spot. It was so lovely and once out there it was very quiet and not a lot of people around. Friday 30th took the train down to Cefalu for a couple of days, we just fell in love with it, such a charming little seaside town! It is extremely hilly up and down all the time and as you walk through the winding streets there are lovely shops and food outlets everywhere. We noticed a lot of tourists arrived around and left late in the afternoon down for the day from Palermo and other areas.
