185. Gems of Palermo

Where: Palermo, Italy
When: March 29, 2013
With: Dave

Sicily is an interesting place. Many mainland Italians (my own grandmother included) don't really consider it to really be part of Italy. Most people wouldn't think to go to Sicily before first visiting the Rome's and Florence's of the country. And as the football about to be kicked by the mainland boot, little brother syndrome could potentially permeate everything on this little island. 

However, all these facts have probably only increased the richness of culture and resoluteness of the Sicilians. When you walk into a restaurant, you will be spoken to in Italian. There are very few sidewalk cafes intended to lure passing tourists in for super expensive drinks or cups of coffee. And the people are gruff and hard working, not present for the sole purpose to smile and create a warm and pleasant experience for tourists. All these elements come together to make you truly feel that you've stepped into their world, and you are seeing it as it is, not for the tourist attraction version they want you to believe.

The first stop on our trip through Sicily that truly encapsulated this concept is the main city of Palermo. Palermo's entry in the book is titled as being its "gems". And after a day walking around here, I realised that no other word could better describe Palermo's sites. 

After flying in, Dave and I rented our car and set off in search of these "gems". Our first stop was to Monreale, a high-sitting neighbourhood on a mountain overlooking the surrounding area of Palermo. Here is the site of one of Sicily's biggest attractions, the 12th century Monreale Cathedral.

While its exterior was fine and lovely, the inside was a surprisingly stunning masterpiece of gold, gold, and more gold. Gilded wood beams covered the ceiling with intricate carvings, mosaic frescos lined the walls, and a really large golden Jesus adorned the back of the altar. 

From the cloisters outside the church, we got some views of the city below. The stunning interior of the church didn't exactly match the small town village feel outside or the fairly standard looking neighborhoods below.

We headed out of Monreale and down the mountain towards Palermo's city center. Upon arriving, we headed off for another kind of gem: food. We made our way to the city's fish market, La Vucciria, where salty old dogs cleaned their fresh catch-of-the-day right on the street and the smell of fish guts clogged your nose. We ate at a place called Shanghai, where a friendly man stood behind a counter that contained a full spread of all different kinds of fish dishes. You can make your own plate, or let him pick for you. With a half-bottle of wine and our platter of fish, we settled into Sicilian life and watched the locals go about their business. 

Well-fed, we set off to explore the rest of the city. Most of the sites sat along one main road through the middle. 

Dave had obtained a guide to a walking tour highlighting the sites of Palermo, so we decided to start with that to learn our way around. The first stop on the tour was the Church of San Giovanni degli Eremeti. We headed to the site, and looked up at the church before us. 

The problem is that this isn't the Church of San Giovanni, this is the Duomo of Palermo. We scratched our heads for a very long time trying to understand how this was "a small 6th century Benedictine Abbey containing a garden in the front". Fail #1 of the walking tour. 

Anyway, the Duomo is noted for having several different architectural styles due to construction over many years by many different architects. It's served as a Byzantine basilica, a mosque, and a cathedral in its 800 year history. The inside was plain and almost Georgian, feeling more like building in Washington, DC rather than Sicily. It's few windows also made it relatively dark for the middle of the day.

We enjoyed the painting on the ceiling above the altar, what looked to be a half finished painting of heaven. Almost like a reminder to church goers of what sits above them. 

When we reached this random line through the base of the church depicting each of the zodiac signs, we were really confused because (1) we were supposed to be in an old, Christian abbey, and (2) the zodiac would be not be considered Christian, right? Dave is thoroughly puzzled.

After finishing at the Duomo, we continued on our walking tour. At some point between trying to understand where we were and where we were going, we realised we hadn't started where we thought we started. Once we righted ourselves, we came upon the real Church of San Giovanni degli Eremetti. See, here is the quaint garden.

Now this looks like a 6th century abbey. Dave is no longer confused.

The gardens outside were beautiful and quiet and peaceful.

We couldn't get into the main part of the church, and this made Dave sad. Fail #2.

But he recovered quickly and resolved himself to move on to the next one. 

Sadly, luck was just not on our side this day. Our next planned stop was the main palace of Sicily, just across the street from the abbey. However, due to a private event, it closed four hours early and two minutes too late for us. We could only observe from the outside. Fail #3.

At this point, we'd either seen the main "gems" or we hadn't, and our "book" tour of the city was as complete as could be. So it was time to just wander the rest of the city. 

We stopped at a fountain that was originally built for a private home until it was bought out by the city instead. It was mildly controversial back in the day due to the several naked nymphs and monsters doing inappropriate things that cover it. That's how it earned the name as "the fountain of shame".

The thing I found fascinating as we continued to wander the streets was how many churches were built into the otherwise unassuming facades. The outside would look like another building, but if you were lucky enough to spot the entrance to a church, you were blown away when you walked through the doors to find things like this:

Occasionally we came across some lovely art.

We made it to the edge of the city, where the harbour began. For having this beautiful stretch along the water though, Sicily hasn't much capitalised on it. They've kept it mostly for boats, fisherman, and the occasional jogger, but no cafes or restaurants to sit and enjoy the view. So all we could do was stroll a bit before heading back into the city.

Once back in, we heard a large marching band playing music in the streets. We couldn't figure out what it was for until we remembered (by the purple flags in the streets) that it was Good Friday. As we moved closer to see what was going on, we came upon kind of reenactment of the stations of the cross / commemoration to the Virgin Mary. Romans, Jesus, and the Mary's walked the street, along with tons of men carrying very heavy statues in commemoration of the day. 

At first, we were surprised how many men it took to lift and carry these items. However, as the night continued on and we wandered the city, we kept running into this procession. As roundabout and out of the way as we would go, we always stumbled upon them, for hours into the night. So then we felt bad for the poor guys who literally carried these objects for at least 6 hours through the streets of Palermo in a slow march. 

Our final find before heading out to dinner was a series of streets acting as a market. One street was like being at the feast of San Giannaro in New York, with stalls and stalls of clothes and lace and any other kind of flea market-esque item you could think to buy. Other streets were filled with market after market of food. 

To close out our night, we headed to a pizza restaurant for, well, Sicilian pizza. The pizza ended up being standard brick oven, but was still very good. 

All in all, I would agree with the assessment of calling the sites in Palermo "Gems". It's definitely not a city with a brushed up appearance (it needs a good powerwash), you need to go digging to find the sites, but when you spot them and enter, they're brilliant. A good start to the trip, but let's get out into the countryside!