After arriving in Palermo via faerie we went straight to the hotel to unload and have breakfast. Then we headed on our tour of the city. We started in my person favorite cathedral — the Monreale Cathedral, also known as La Basilica Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova (please see previous Palermo post for pictures!). I even bought a mosaic from a local store to have a souvenir of my favorite cathedral!! We also visited another similarly styled chapel called Palatine Chapel (Capella Palatina). Much of the rest of the tour was from the bus but we saw many of the most important buildings. I was excited this day and took an extraordinarily large amount of pictures. We saw a few churches, one in the Norman Palace, which we barely managed to get in a visit before they closed the church to tourists for an Easter mass. The other, Palermo Cathedral, was holding a mass when we walked in. Many of the tourists were taking pictures but I just didn’t have it in me to do so during a mass.
Fountain outside Cathedral Monreale
Some of the most impressive grafiti i’ve ever seen
Inside the Palatine Chapel
In the afternoon we were given more free time than usual presumably because it was, after all, Easter Sunday. We walked down the street of our hotel to find somewhere to eat. We ended up in a fish place with a waiter who should’ve retired long ago. He messed up every part of our order imaginable but the fish, at least, was very good. Mom and I went out to find some Sicilian specialties after lunch while dad went upstairs for a nap. Unfortunately we didn’t find any such specialties and ended up walking back to the hotel empty handed. I then decided to take a nap and a bath. I even finished the book I brought to read for homework out on the balcony overlooking Palermo’s coast. It was definitely a high time for me even if I still was fighting illness. I didn’t realize my health would go downhill from there. The decline started with a restless night due to some idiot in the parking lot screaming to cram in cars all night. The hotel room and view was spectacular but clearly costs were cut when making window insulation decisions!
The view out my hotel window
Dad and I infront of the coast AND a very large tree stump