Adrian's diary again

Sept 25 (Tuesday)
Transferred to Palermo by coach; a rainy day with the mountains obscured - we went back past Enna where the inhabitants must live in the clouds for much of the year.

In the afternoon we had a guided tour, by Paolo Lungo, of the main sites of Palermo. Fontana Pretoria, just opposite our hotel, is also known as the 'Fountain of shame' (di vergogna) for the many nude statues next to a convent. photos later

Then on to the Cathedral via back streets - a Norman-Arabic exterior with a much remodelled interior now in Spanish Baroque. Heard story of Saint Rosalia whose bones 'saved' Palermo from the plague and who is celebrated in Palermo in mid July.

Next stop was the Royal Palace with its Palace Chapel rich in biblical mosaics - still visible in part under a restoration programme following a recent earthquake. After losing our guide momentarily we continued through the narrow streets or alleys of old Palermo, now being refashioned after damage and desertion following WWII. We arrived at a street marked 'Mercato Ballaro, with tempting displays of fresh produce (bought some black olives before catching up with the group). There followed several more churches at which we were competing with bridal ceremonies, comings and goings; at one we stopped to watch the bride's arrival amid a veritable scrummage of cars coming and gong. Before that there was already a ceremony.

and finally to the church of the Marterano (inventors of marzipan).

Sept 25 Wednesday
By public transport to Monreale - after a walk up to the Piazzi Indipendenza via a puppet theatre with a show promised for the evening. l ater see pictures and home web for sound and film

Monreale is a fabulous Norman Cathedral decorated all over the interior in mosaics telling the biblical stories. We also explored a bit of the roof which afforded a panorama of a lovely cloister area with elegant colonnades, before taking us over the roof of the cathedral for a panorama of the Conca d'Ora in which Palermo nestles. On the return journey we detoured to the Cappucina Catacombs, a rather ghoulish display of relatively recent corpses (less that 200 years in most cases) in their funeral garb. They were classified: priests, monks, professional people, women, babies. Without explanation or obvious historical significance, the point of the display escaped us.