The last 2 days we’ve been exploring the surrounds of Palermo which has been really lovely. Yesterday was a particularly slow start as Ham, who has been working every morning, gazing at a computer screen, ended up with a headache so had to take remedial action. I went out for a coffee and a poke around the streets and came back before we finally got ourselves out and about at around 1pm.
We walked up to a restaurant we had been to for lunch before, ‘La Galleria’. They greeted us like long lost friends which was lovely, and we enjoyed another delicious fishy meal. We then headed up to Piazza Independenza from where the bus was to take us up the hill to Monreale, a sort of hilltop extension of Palermo. And the bus did take us up there, but not before we waited for about 40 minutes (they aren’t regular busses). So we were late arriving and flew into the famous Duomo di Monreale at 5pm. Things were closing up. Ham and Ariane did a quick flip uo the tower to see the view…I reneged on this one given the hill we’d just ploughed up to get to the Duomo in the first place. I focussed on the mosaics which were quite remarkable…again an entire Cathedral coated with amazing mosaics from C15. It really is wonderful.
We then went to the Cloister (which fortunately didn’t close until 6.30pm)…a lovely, tranquil, pretty cloister with mosaic adorned columns. As it was so late it was actually rather wonderful as all the tourists had gone and the Nunns were singing in the background so the peace of the place was remarkable.
Back to get on the bus, but wait, we had just missed a bus and the last bus was an hour and a half away. What to do, what to do?? Ah, there’s a bar up there….thank god!! Have a drink (or maybe have 2) and then head back down to the bus-stop. When we got on the bus a couple of women from the Netherlands who we’d spoken to briefly (they went to the bar for a drink as well) also got on the bus but didn’t have a ticket (thought they could get one on the bus) and the driver wasn’t going to let them get on without a ticket and to get a ticket they would have had to go to the town and they would have missed the bus (last one, remember) anyway. But wait…ever-ready tourists that we are, we had 2 extra tickets which (naturally) we gave them. They were very grateful and then we seemed to see them everywhere!! It became embarrassing and when we sat down, back in Palermo, for a quick meal who should walk in!!….anyway they ended up buying me (because I was the only one greedy enough to accept) a drink. It all got a bit messy really and fortunately we haven’t seen them since!!
Today has been a lovely day. The sun has shone all day. We set off early (for us), with me going ahead for my coffee, for the train station and without incident hopped on a crowded train to Cefalu. This is a really lovely old town on the Northern Coast of Sicily, with lots of character, lovely hilly, narrow streets, a lovely beach with clear water and a Duomo with lovely mosaics. On top of the hill overlooking the town is the mandatory castle, ‘La Rocca’.
We went first to the Duomo and spent time looking at more mosaics (which, just for the record, I never get tired of). Then we found a nice place for a yummy lunch, for the record it was called’ Le Botte’. More seafood dishes and a nice glass of Vino Bianco (for me). We then wondered the streets looking at the shops, we went down to the beaches and wished we were in our bathers for a swim, walked out on the headland bit, wandered the streets some more and got back on the train to come home. All in all a really lovely day. Cefalu is a ‘come back to and stay a while’ sort of town for me. Much nicer than Taormina because so much less crowded.
We’re eating at home tonight complements of Ariane after a big but thoroughly enjoyable day.