Got made in Palermo...

Got Made in Palermo

I spent the weekend in Palermo with Carla. We were able to find a great hotel in the middle of the action. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting from Palermo. The city itself has over 1 million inhabitants, and comparing that to Catania which only has 350,000 inhabitants, I was a little scared.

After the hotel and getting something to eat, Carla and I found ourselves walking through the gardens of the Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti. Unfortunately half the place was closed for renovation, but I did get to see some cute kitty cats lounging in the plants. Then we headed to the Catacombi museum. They have hundreds of preserved bodies there hanging from the walls and resting in coffins. It was really kind of creepy. Some of the bodies were very well preserved and you could still see what they looked like, even still having facial hair. Unfortunately they prohibited photography so I couldn’t take any photos. Getting to the catacombs was interesting too. The streets of Palermo can be difficult to navigate and my map only had the central portion on it. So I finally decided to ask a nun where to find them. I figure if you can’t trust a nun….She started to tell us where to go then decided to walk us there. She was 80 years old and was practically sprinting up the street, it was difficult to keep up.

We headed back to the city and stopped at a beautiful cathedral. The churches in Italy are so big, and I haven’t even been to Rome yet. Then we stopped by the Teatro Massimo, and the English Gardens. On the way there, at about 4pm, we noticed there was an extraordinary amount of people out on the streets. We stopped in this one piazza because there were scooters upon scooters lined up on each side and people everywhere, just hangin’ out.

That night we headed out to dinner and then hit up I Candelai, the part of town that has all the bars and clubs. Unfortunately the one good dance club they have was closed because it got busted for something the previous Thursday. I was so exhausted from walking all day anyways that all I wanted to do was sit and have a drink. So we did, and it was fun. But on the way back to the hotel at 2 in the morning we were approached by numerous men, old and young. They were very aggressive in Palermo, not so much during the day, but in the evening and at night. Carla took the brunt of it because she speaks fluent Italian. I on the other hand just pretend like I don’t know what they’re saying. We were VERY happy to get back to our hotel.

Then the next day after an awesome included breakfast, we went to Mondello Beach just outside of town. The beach was very busy but it was nice to relax and not have to walk around so much. We met a really nice guy from Westham, England who had decided to fly to Palermo to watch the Palermo vs Westham soccer match. Then we got back on the bus and came back to Catania. Strange as it sounds, it felt good to return “home”.