July 26, Tuesday- Palermo, Sicily
Palermo is an old seaside city. It has a historic opera house, a very promising cathedral, and many other sites to keep us busy. When we were here 9 years ago the garbage workers were on strike. It was obvious from the piles and the atmosphere. We are anxious to see it today in better condition.
The ship docked very close to the old city. Our hope was to walk to the major sites. First was the opera house. I thought I remembered the way, but it seemed to be taking too long. I opened WhatsApp on my phone. It confirmed that we were almost there. In 5 minutes we were on the square in front of it. Since it had not moved we must have slowed down since last time.
We fought the sun to get the best pictures we could. Then we made our way around the square before starting out for the cathedral. The app showed alternative ways to get there. Many people were heading toward a busy cross street. We opted for a diagonal route that cut the corner of a triangle. It looked shorter.
The distance for this route may have been shorter but the time was not. That is a good thing because it placed us in our glory. We were walking through neighborhoods. The housing was interesting. The neighborhood shops were also. This circuitous route had us worried at times. We still could not see the spires. But we did seem to be on the correct path on. The app.
As our apprehension grew we turned a corner and entered a narrow lane with stalls on both sides and local people galore shopping. We had entered a large fish and produce market. Clothing was also for sale here. This continued for a few long blocks. At the end we checked the map. It showed a church up a side street.
We got there and found a neighborhood church not the cathedral. As we walked on when we passed the next lane we saw the spires of the cathedral. It appeared to be just a few blocks away. MapMe got us there in short order. After visiting the cathedral and it’s plaza, we again followed MapMe to return to the ship. Half way back we arrived at the 4 corners intersection. The building on each of the corners had ornamentation that complemented the others. It is impressive.
A short way down one of the streets was yet another church. We visited the outside of this one before continuing on to the waterfront. A long walk along the water got us back to Oosterdam.
We were more impressed with Palermo this time. It was cleaner. We spent more time in local neighborhoods. The energy level was higher even with the heat. The only disappointment was the presence of graffiti everywhere.
This was a satisfying visit, but we have had enough of Palermo.
Opera House
No comments:
Post a Comment