Palermo

I am sure that when you are sitting at home reading about our travels, the idea of heading to Sicily for ten days sounds wonderful. But for us it was also work. We shepherded the students around, escorted them to emergency rooms, dealt with their personal crises and just dealt with being in the presence of 59 teenagers. It is not all fun for them either. While they might not be doing much math, the trips are a major component of their classes in ancient history and art history. As you might have gathered from the previous posts, the first part of the trip was heavy on the classical world, especially the Greek period. The second portion of the trip, which began in Palermo, focused primarily on the art and architecture of the Norman period.

I have to step back and admit, especially for those of you who think I am a total Italophile, that there are actually places in Italy that don’t really rock my world. Milano is one of them. Been there, done that and don’t ever need to go back. Palermo is another. It really doesn’t have that much in the way of charm. At least it doesn’t naturally ooze charm like other places do. It is a rough, dirty, grey, sort of non-descript city. But, if you look hard enough it does have its moments. For instance, driving into the city we passed a little donkey cart being driven around a small square. It wasn’t a tourist thing; it was just an older gentleman going about his business.

Another gem is the Cappella Palatina, located in the Palazzo Reale. The interior of the chapel is covered in mosaic tile from the Norman period. The two pictures here are of the nave and pulpit.

Again, for better or worse, the guided tour we were given for the entire day was in Italian. Amy was able to understand most of it with extreme concentration; I got little out of it. The Palace is also the meeting site of the Sicilian Parliament. Sicily is semi-autonomous and their elected representatives meet in a room painted with the labors of Herakles. This one depicts the fourth task – the capture of the Erymanthian boar. It is interesting to note that the picture is painted directly on the walls. What appears to be an ornate frame around is also painted on the wall. Check out the fire extinguisher sign in the lower left of the photo.

During the afternoon we took a walk around with the same guide. We stopped for what seemed like forever at the Pretoria Fountain next to the city hall, a particularly uninspiring, triple-tiered monstrosity that was cordoned off so that you couldn’t get within 25 meters of it. If I had to guess I would say city officials were worried what people might do should they be allowed to express their opinion of it.  

We also took a disappointing stroll past la Martorana, yet another Norman period, mosaic covered church. The interior was closed, but we saw many mosaics elsewhere. It actually has a reasonably nice exterior as well, which we also did not see. What we got was a rear shot with the three red domes, kind of like red nipples. We finished the afternoon being escorted around the city by a pair of street dogs who protected us from strangers by chasing them away. They seemed to harbor extreme animosity toward dark-skinned males.