More days exploring Palermo

I’ve just read Hammy’s blog and feel quite over-shadowed. There is little to add really but here goes.

Now up to Friday and yes I did go out for a little explore in the morning while Ham and ariane watched the footy, I had some lunch back at the Tapas place we went to on out first night, Tredici. Lunch special for 5EU so who’s to complain.

We then went off to find the Inquisition Museum. What more can I say about our visit to the Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri which houses an ‘Inquisition Museum’, than what Hammy said:
“Essentially you’re taken through a bunch of gaol cells that were used to house prisoners of the Inquisition from from 1600 to 1782. The walls are covered in 17th Century graffiti which was a mixture of subtle mocking of their captors, reinterpretations of biblical stories to reflect their current situation, protector saints and poetry. All in a variety of languages (including English as there were some English captives). A pretty remarkable historical snapshot all in all”.

I just loved this to pieces, it was one of those complete surprises you get when you stumble across a real treasure. I thought, an inquisition museum…a bit ho hum (having done torture museums with Rosa) but I was blown away. So evocative of the suffering of these prisoners. The funny thing was that Hammy has been raving about the Kingdom of Aragon…his favourite and here was the girl telling us that it was just this regime that had indulged in the inquisition, torturing their prisoners in unimaginable ways.

After this we walked back stopping at a ritzy place on the roof of a big department store for cocktails before going out to dinner. We went to the place we couldn’t get into on our second night…hugely popular but I soon discovered it was a fancy Italian Burger joint. Not really my style but fortunately the ritzy place we went to for cocktails provided tapasy food with the Negroni’s so I didn’t really need to eat a burger and was happy with a taste of Ariane and Hammy’s.

Yesterday was also a slowish start. I headed off a bit earlier and waited for H&A in a bar having my fill of Cappuccini. Then we went to the Modern Art Museum. No surprises or hidden treats there. Some nice pieces and great to see the Art of Sicily but otherwise unremarkable. After moseying around there for a couple of hours we came back home for a break and then set off to see a Sicilian Puppet show – The “Opera dei Pupi”- a show using rod Marionettes with an ancient tradition going back a couple of hundred years. It was fun but a tiny theatre stuffed full of obnoxious Americans. The marrionettes themselves were amazing and the people working them were incredible. After that we found (on the information given to us by our host) a most fabulous fish restaurant called “Mercede”. It was wonderful. I had the Spaghetti with Bottarga again and we shared mains of the most tender Octopus (Polpe) and an amazing fish called Mupa….really yummy food.

Today, a late start again- but included some lovely chats to Angus and Rose.. We basically go out at lunch time so that Hammy can do some work in the morning. We are going to head up to a Castello, taking in some lunch on the way.
Up to date again…another week in Palermo but only 5 days with H&A who are leaving on Friday.