Wednesday October 12th
Sicilia day 2, and the sun is out again! A nice change from what we’ve had. Our first stop of the day was Monreale, and more specifically it’s Cathedral. I have to admit that after a while you start to have your fill of churches, but every once in a while you come across one that perks you up again. If you stop to think about how small the pieces are that go into making a mosaic, and how many it takes to do a 2 foot square mosaic, it just blows your mind to see them on this scale. It is a big cathedral, and at least 90% of it’s walls are covered in mosaics. I can’t even fathom how many tiny colored tiles that would be. My only real complaint is that it is always too dark inside to get good pictures to share with you all. It doesn’t take too long to wander through, and as far as I could tell there isn’t really that much else to see. So Monreale is a perfect addition to your Sicilian holiday. It is only 7 Km from Palermo, so take an hour and stop in to see one of the world’s largest displays of Mosaic art. Of interest also, though perhaps only to me, is the Piazza Guglielmo il Secondo. Named for the last Norman King of Sicily, King William II, who was also known as William the good.
As mentioned, Palermo is just 7 Km away, but I have one piece of advice for you. DON’T GO...at least don’t go by car. I had read that this was the worst traffic in Italy, but having driven in Rome and Naples both, I figured we’d be okay. If you’ve never seen 3 lanes of traffic coming from the left merging with 3 lanes of traffic coming from the right, and doing it onto a 2 lane one-way street, you should. Actually you should never, but by the end of the day we would have wished to repeat that 10 times rather than go through what we did. But more on that later.
Just based on the list of things to do and see, Palermo was one of the bigger places we’ve gone. It’s a pretty darn big place, but luckily most of the major monuments are a fairly short walking distance from one another. You have to block out the big buildings and the snarling traffic, but if you succeed you’ll find a number of nice things. The Fontana Pretorio is one of the biggest and most beautiful fountains that I’ve seen anywhere in Italy. It’s a shame that the world is full of hooligans, so they’ve had to put a fence up around it, but climb some nearby steps and you can get past this. The Duomo is probably the most architecturally interesting building we’ve see so far. With heavy Byzantine and Arabic influences it certainly stands out in the crowd. The Garibaldi gardens featured a species of tree that I wish I knew the name of. They are humongous, and it looks like the branches sprout roots which eventually reach the ground and grow into another tree. The process repeats itself hundreds of times until the jumbled mass is truly awe inspiring. I know it’s a tree, and trees are everywhere, but these really were worthy of standing and staring. Here’s one thing that I will share with you, and it’s just my own personal opinion, so choose for yourselves obviously. The info that I had said that the Capella Palatina was one of the most beautiful churches in the world. It is undeniably very nice, but it struck me as a copy of the Cathedral at Monreale, only on a smaller scale. The entrance fee, for me, was not worth it. So if you should find yourself here, and you have to make a choice between the Capella or a big ass gelato, go with the gelato every time! I felt like a few of the things that were listed as must sees were unspectacular, while we saw a ton of things that weren’t on any list that were. So again I stress the beauty of wandering around, and just bumping into things.
From here we were supposed to continue on to Segesta before stopping for the night. That didn’t really happen. If you will, think back to the “big rig” block that I was afraid would keep us from Sicily. Remember? Good! It came back to get us. I guess today was the day they decided to park their trucks in the middle of the road. In 3 hours we traveled a maximum distance of 2 Km. People were hopping curves, and driving in reverse down the highway to get to exits they had already passed. I saw one guy put his car in park, get out, walk behind a dumpster to relieve himself, and get back in the car and we still hadn’t gone anywhere. So we’ll save Segesta for the morning.
Tonight’s lodging is in a B&B just outside of Trapani. It is called Tenuta Manzo. www.tenutamanzo.it there are currently 2 bedrooms available, but construction on 3 new bungalows is about to commence. As with most all of the places we’ve been the room was large and comfortable. The bathroom was very nice, with a new flushing mechanism that I have never seen before. There’s a kitchen and a dining area. It is surrounded by olive and fruit trees, with a lovely shaded gazebo. Of course what made it truly enjoyable was Franco and Enza. They were so gracious and so friendly. Enza told us that hospitality is in the Sicilian’s nature, and they did their best to prove it. Franco took us out for Pizza, and when the one we went to was closed he took us to another that was only “take away” and we took it back to his house and ate with his family. They didn’t stop offering us things until we were out the door. Wine, juice, fruit, coffee, etc. They were just plain too nice. In the morning we’re going to get a little tour of the grounds, so for now it’s off to bed.