Sunday, September  21, Palermo, Sicily

Wow – made it to the land of half my family roots! My dad’s family is from Sicily so we are taking advantage of a trip to my roots and seeing as much of Sicily as we can. We are now in Palermo in the cutest and roomiest apartment yet! It is more than we had hoped for with lots of extra room for some quiet time if one of us needs it 🙂 We have 2 lovely terraces, one which wraps around on the living floor area and the other that is on the roof, both of which have awesome views! We got to Palermo around 8:30 last night, after flying on Ryanair, with the coolest crew ever! And not too bad on the eyes! Wait, I did not just say that! Actually I did say that and for those of you who know me well, know that I do not mind some nice eye candy from time to time!

We arrived at the airport, hopped on the bus and our adorable landlady Concetta, met us at the bus stop once we arrived in town. She walked us to our apartment and yapped at 300 miles a minute in English the whole time. Didn’t think we had too far to walk but let’s just say it was further than we hoped at that hour and after being out and about Pisa most of the day.  Once we arrived at the apartment, it was up to the 4th floor apartment which is actually on the 5th floor – backpacks got a tad bit much about half way up when I kind of stopped breathing for a while!  Wow talk about out of shape – good lord!

Below are a few photos of our apartment – please enjoy!

Monday, 22 September

After a good night’s sleep, we had coffee on the rooftop then headed out for two bus tours. This is a good way to orient yourself with the city,  but boy was it warm! There is going to be much to see on foot, now that we kind of have an idea which directions we need to be going. Obviously Palermo is a very old city with many of the buildings still under reconstruction from the wars. It’s very sad that all that destruction had to happen and it is totally mind boggling to realize how long it really does take to rebuild or renovate buildings after so much devastation.

Traveling with Jim has been really awesome, with his background in history, especially all he learned at West Point, he is the best guide ever because he is explaining all of this to me since I really didn’t have this type of history in school (nor I did not care about it when I was in school!) Now it has a lot more meaning and it’s nice to hear it from someone who can explain it to me so I understand it.

We stopped between tours for some espresso and a pastry! Wow were those pastries filling but it got us through the rest of the tour.

A few photos from our tour.

Once the tours were done, we walked back to our apartment, stopping at the grocer and the vegetable/fruit guy across the street.

Our landlady had asked that we water the plants that are not on the drip system so we went up on the roof and I had the urge to trim some of the plants, clean them up a little and sweep! I know, I hear many of you saying OMG she really is crazy. Well you all know I cannot sit still for long so this was fun for a while but then it got just too hot and I quit. Have included a photo or two of our balconies!  Give you a better idea of the “yard” and work in which I engaged!

Now it was time for a salad to hold us over until dinner.  Our lunch nowadays has moved to somewhere between 1:00 and 2:30 PM!

After lunch I decided to bug my daughter so we did face time with Michele. I was giving her the iPad tour of our apartment both inside and outside, when I heard, ‘mom please tell me when you are set because you are making me dizzy!  Oh yeah, sorry Michele ok you can look now! I get a little carried way when I get excited over something.

The classic crazy of Palermo – parking a car or motor scooter! The rule is anywhere you want, on the side walk, double parking, half street-half sidewalk, right on the corner sticking out into any part of the street in everyone’s way, making it difficult to make a right hand turn or even walk around it, and blocking other vehicles! It is the absolute craziest thing we’ve ever seen and had Jim and I busting a gut laughing.  Italians, or I guess I should specify in this case – Sicilians – basically do whatever they want and get away with it!

Walking in Sicily is an adventure as well! If you are in a crosswalk and there is no street sign or light, you walk into the street with oncoming cars, put your hand up as a stop sign and just cross the road.  (JIM:  Actually folk, it is only the Sicilian women who bust right out into the street, throw up an arm and hand, and just guts it out across the street — semi tractor trailer coming or now!) I’ve got this one down pat now and Jim follows me! (I usually close my eyes and pray we don’t get hit) Our AH HA moment of the day, I love it!

By the way, we figured out why a siesta is necessary in the afternoon. It is 4am here now and we are both wide awake, already went out on the balcony expecting to see nothing on the streets. Nope, not the case. Folks are down there just yapping away like it was the middle of the day. What on earth can people find to talk about all day long? I find all of this very funny and just a little bit nutty!  (JIM:  But give her another week or so and I’ll bet she’ll be right out there with them!)

This was all just our first day in Palermo, Sicily – I can’t even imagine what the rest of this trip will be like.

Tuesday, September  23, Palermo, Sicily

Monday was a day spent on sightseeing buses that took us all over Palermo. Today we began the actual visits to sights we selected during the bus tours or otherwise learned of from our landlady or tour books.  Palermo is a city with fresh vegetable and fruit stands everywhere and all of it delicious. Panificio’s (bakeries) are also abundant for your fresh bread which they make all day long in part, because of demand: Sicilian’s love their bread.  A fresh loaf of Italian bread costs .50 euros (that is about .60 cents a loaf!) Can you imagine having fresh bread at that price every day and not having to pay $5 for a loaf of maybe fresh bread in the States? The fruit and vegetables are equally as inexpensive as the bread, are fresh and seem to have been picked ripe rather than picked early for a long shipment to market so we are eating well, eating healthy and loving it!

We saw many churches of course and yes, all beautiful and all very different as you will see from some of our photos. I find the churches to be the most interesting of all. The museums are wonderful and the artwork is amazing but I am a bigger fan of the churches. I am amazed at how they were built, especially in the years long ago, but more so about what it must cost to keep these churches up and running. The workmanship is unbelievable and all the marble is gorgeous.

There were also several other churches and museums we visited but at which photos were prohibited. One church is down near where my sister Connie and my nephew Brett and his wife Shelley will be staying adjacent to the Porta Felice shown above. It’s the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Catena, a Catalan Gothic church named for the chain (catena) that once stretched across the Palermo harbor to keep out the bad guys. We did tour the Palazzo Abatellis which now houses 19 rooms of the Regional Gallery (museum) of Sicily. The palazzo had been heavily damaged by Allied bombing of the harbor area during WW II and only recently completed renovation. No photos here unfortunately. You can Google it if you wish to learn more.

We left the Palazzo Abatellis, passed along the Palazzo Steri, and came upon the Giardino Garibaldi, took a welcome break in the shade and then headed back toward the apartment. Along the way, we passed through the Mercato (market) Vucceria with its many merchants shouting out their wares.

Something else that seems to be popular here are the horse drawn carriages for tourists to ride around the city. The horses are beautiful and well taken care of. I am including a photo of one of the horses who must be a girl because she has a hat and a bow on. How adorable is that? They also put covers on the horses’ ears to deaden  the noise from cars, scooters, sirens and people.

Ciao to another day in Palermo!

Wednesday, September  24, Palermo and Monreale, Sicily

Big motivation today was to visit the Doumo (cathedral) up on the hill overlooking Palermo in the town of Monreale. This cathedral was established back in 1072 at a time when the bishop of Palermo had to leave the city as the Arabs had taken control. When the Normans took back control, William II actually began construction of the what has become the current cathedral. Surprising as it seems, the cathedral construction was completed in 12 years. There have been expansions, etc., but amazing that even a limited part of this current structure could have been completed so quickly.  Photos follow. Anyway, to get to Monreale, we opted to jump back on one of the tour bus lines we had used Monday to get around the city.  Just a tad more orientation couldn’t hurt and they had a pretty direct route!

We then headed down the hill back into Palermo for a stop at the Cathedral in Palermo and no, we haven’t figured out how the town has two cathedrals — we’re going to find out though. We included a photo of the exterior of the cathedral in an early post so will focus on the interior here. As a reminder, this, like many other churches in Palermo and throughout Sicily, shows signs of multiple cultures, religions and architecture due to the multiple and varied rulers that exercised control over Sicily at one time or another. There are scriptures from the Koran in this cathedral as an example.

We then took a break for lunch after which we jumped back on the tour buses to make our way around the city to a few more sites. But after finishing the tour, we just decided to walk around a little.

At one point we were on a corner looking at our map. It was a one way street that was filled with parked cars so we figured it’s safe to check out the map and we were in such a tiny space! Well you can guess it – some woman driver somehow appeared right behind us backing out of the one way street the wrong way – we never heard her car – when I hear Jim – Fran move quick – she was so close to running her tires over my feet – boy did she get the look from me! Seriously lady, what on earth are you thinking? Then we were crossing a one way road and as we got almost to the sidewalk, there was a scooter coming on the other side of the bus and nearly ran me over! Well now all I have to say about this is Madonami!!! and a few other Italian expletives that I shall not mention because I’m a lady after all!

We finally arrived home at 4pm! Totally wiped out!

Thursday, September  25, Palermo, Sicily

Thought we just might have a rain day today. Had a couple of rain showers in the morning — enough to add humidity but also cool things off a little. Zero balance we say as the slight temperature drop was counterbalanced by the increased humidity. But, the rain set the mood so we spent much of the day inside planning the rest of our stay in Sicily. However, we did get out to pick up the fresh bread and veggies we needed for the day, journey by bus over to the Stazione Centrale to buy our train tickets for the trip to Cefalu on Saturday, and walk up the street to buy our tickets for the bus to Trappani and Marsala tomorrow — Friday.

The ah-hah of the day? The bus ride to Central Station. We sort of knew we were in trouble when we saw the two dozen other people waiting at the bus stop. The bus, one of those double bus thingees with the rubber accordion between them, gave us some hope — they are big. No such luck as the bus was already filled but we jumped on anyway. Hot, humid, squished, no hand holds other than someone else’s belt or dress, and we had to go across town.  The ticket purchase was simple and the ride back just fine. Must have been all of five of us on the bus for the ride back across town.

We’ll do our best to keep you posted these next two days but with a full day trip to Marsala and Trappani tomorrow and the train over to Cefalu Saturday, you might not hear from us until Sunday.

Buon notte. It’s an early bus!

Friday, September  26.  Palermo, Trapani and Marsala, Sicily

Caught a 7:30 bus headed to Marsala through Trapani this morning. Thought we’d take in the Northwestern and Western coast of Sicily as a day trip.  The countryside was gorgeous, the weather equally nice and the nearly two hour ride pleasant. We mostly passed through Trapani without stopping. When we arrived Marsala, we wove around the narrow streets of town for five minutes before arriving at the train and bus station. From there we began our walk around town. First “attraction” we noted was what you see below. Quite fitting that continuing on our walk down to the harbor, we then came across the Bianchi Distillery, makers of the fine Marsala and a nice variety of limoncello, pistachio and other of the after dinner drinks. We walked out with seven bottles!

We walked along the harbor then, trying to find the Duomo and town center. Had to do a little more communicating but all worked well. The men along the street understood us and we took aboard their directions — all in Italian. We arrived at the gate to the Centro, the Duomo and the province capital buildings. Marsala is the capital of Marsala province.

Our ah-hah moment of the day was going into the Duomo at the tail end of a funeral mass. Pall bearers in gray suits complete with sunglasses made our day. Seemed so typical Sicilian.

Haven’t quite figured out what churches of purgatory stand for, do or represent but we’ll figure it out as there appear to be so many of them!

We headed down towards the harbor again, looking for and finding a good restaurant. Most of the restaurants we frequent actually have tables on the street. Several have been listed with agencies such as Michelin or Urban Spoon with four and five stars so it’s not just street food as one might want to assume. We had some pretty typical Sicilan fare today, including some cappelletti as you’ll see below.

Caught the bus home to Palermo at 14:30 arriving two hours later. Hiked the 80 stairs up to the apartment and have been relaxing ever since. Tomorrow it is off to Cefalu by train.

Sabato, 27 settembre.  Palermo and Cefalù, Sicily

We were up fairly early today — early enough to see the garbage collector and street sweepers out doing their thing as well as the fish monger and vegetable stand man setting up. There truly are street sweepers here — must have been five or six out there this morning. But no, the streets and sidewalks are not spotless. The sweepers seem to miss and leave two pieces of paper, cups or bottles for every ten they sweep up! Still, the effort helps, and keeps people in work.

Caught the bus to the train station and then the train from Palermo to Cefalù without issue. Comfortable 50 minute ride. From the train station we noticed quite a few kites in the air. Must have been a kite festival while we were there.

We then walked down into the town and after a few minutes, arrived at the Chiesa del Purgatorio. Don’t yet get the purgatory thing but as we said, we’ll ask pretty soon. More down here in Sicily than elsewhere in Italy.

We then moved on to the Duomo.

Turns out, we made our second wedding in Palermo. For this one, we caught virtually the entire ceremony except that we didn’t stay for Mass. The young man is in the military and was in uniform, as were six sabre bearers, to include plumed hats! Pretty cool — reminded us of some West Point weddings. Look hard and you can see the bride and groom in the photo.

More strolling through town and found a couple of really nice, scenic points, like the bastione at one end of town. We then worked our way up to lunch at the beach. Decided to go light today since we had envisioned eating dinner across the street from the apartment this evening.  Pretty good salads and a nice local red wine this time.

Cefalù is a wonderful and scenic town, ruined only by the number of inconsiderate, loud tourists. After a while, we had had enough and headed back up to the station and back to Palermo.

We walked home from the Stazione Centrale, a good mile or so we think, but the weather was cool and not too humid so it was quite enjoyable.

As mentioned, tonight we ate across the street at Niccolo Napoli which we thought was a pizzeria. Boy were we off base. No pizza at all. It’s an excellent seafood restaurant — and has outstanding cannoli and other dolce — desserts — in addition to the fish. That experience too began with a down side — American tourists.  Older, louder and all around pains. However the food and the wait staff were friendly, helpful and made some outstanding recommendations for typical Sicilian food — and wine. We finished our desserts and our café (expresso) and headed up the 80 stairs to our apartment. It’s a nice cool and dry evening so we expect a great night of sleep. And because of all the walking, a lot uphill and on our own stairway, we won’t be worrying about the carbs!

The end of week one in Sicily and so much more to come!

Ciao

Lunedi, 29 settembre.  Palermo, Sicily

Saturday evening was party time in the square outside our apartment. The streets (three of them) outside this apartment and the plazas (there are two) were filled with people on foot, in cars, on motorbikes, you name it. It was anything but quiet. Seemed to be a “battle of the cars max’d out with audio equipment” — more like a “battle of the bands.” Included was the building-rattling effect of the bass from the speakers in the cars as well. It was so unbelievably loud that Jim did not get to sleep until about 2:30 am. Somehow I managed to sleep through the whole thing! Jim had to show me the photo below before I’d believe him. I must have been dead to the world!’ I could not believe it because Friday night was just as loud until about 2 am. Neither of us got much sleep that night.

Sunday was spent at home with just a run out for bread. We did the mundane chores of laundry and basic straightening up that need to be done, vacation or not!

Today we decided to take a walk and see where it took us. Neither one of us cared if we went out or not but knew we needed some exercise. Turned out to be a beautiful day for weather, cool in the shade and just perfect for walking around. While on the march, we came across more of the Fascist-designed buildings but also the lively Mercato Capo. As we entered the streets and alleys where the Mercato Capo is located, we found a little shop where we ate a sandwich, something Jim has been itching to do since we got here so he’s happy now.

While walking along via Sant’Agosto where the market is located, we noticed these large, white decorations filled with hundreds of little white lights above the streets and alleyways and on some buildings. Turns out this past week was the Festival of the Beautiful Mother of Mercy (Mary), Queen of the Capo, this neighborhood of Palermo — and home of the Mercato Capo. We even found the church from which the festival is organized and in which the parade ends.

We then began looking for the Cappella Palatina.  We had a hard time finding it but of course, should anything we are looking for ever be easy to find? No, we end up walking all over God’s green earth. We thought about heading home several times because we were tired but the chapel was supposed to be just around the corner. Truly, at the last straw, we found it located inside the Palazzo dei Normanni or Palazzo Reale, a very old palace and residence of rulers of Sicily for hundreds of years. It is used as the Sicilian Parliament (Congress) now but many of the rooms on the upper floors are open to tourists to see what the palace was like all those years ago. The chapel is part of the palace. All that walking and being dead tired was well worth it though. The Cappella is perhaps the most beautiful church or museum or building interior we have ever seen.

It was then time to head home and the bus was definitely the way to go. Route 106 if interested!  Tomorrow we meet up with my sister Connie and her son Brett and his wife Shelley. That will be fun!   Buona notte!

Martedi, 30 settembre.  Palermo, Sicilia

Ah, Italy! We headed out to the train station on the other side of town in plenty of time to meet Connie, Brett and Shelley but it was the noon hour. We jumped on the bus headed East on via Roma to the station. via Roma is a three lane, one way street to the West with the Southernmost lane being one way to the East and TO the station — for buses only! Took us longer than walking it seemed as the bus driver had to contend not only with people crossing the street but also cars and motorcycles traveling West in the Eastbound bus lane, attempting to slide over into the proper lane at the very last moment before smashing into the bus. Nope — not a single accident or close call. I guess all of this is expected.  Result? We were 15 minutes longer than expected and Connie, Brett and Shelley arrived Palermo without a welcoming party. We did connect at the station though and grabbed a cab over to their apartment with them.

Their apartment is on the sixth (top) floor and has a wonderful double balcony — one balcony on the apartment level and one up on the apartment roof — the entire apartment roof that is! Wonderful view of the Palermo harbor where they can easily watch the sun rise and the boats, especially cruise ships, enter the harbor ultimately docking over near where we are. If you are looking it up on Google Earth, search for Porta Felice, Palermo, and you’ll be looking right at their location — about 50 meters Southeast of the gate.

We let them settle in for a few minutes and then headed out for lunch. Found a very good restaurant about two blocks away and enjoyed a great meal with good wine. The mix included caprese, pasta with pesto sauce, linguine Trapanese style, and pasta with mussels. Jim added a Secondi — Branzino done up with a potato crust. All were just outstanding as was the house vino rosso and the café. We just might have a photo or two. We all tasted and loved Jim’s Branzino and man, was he a happy camper having finally found really good Branzino.

From lunch, we began a walking tour journey over to our side of town since everyone felt pretty good. We wanted to point out some of the sights to help Connie and crowd get a feel for what they might want to do in the three or four days days they will be here. We all walked through the Mercato Vucciria since Fran knew where she wanted to buy more prosciutto so right off the bat, Con, Brett and Shelley learned about the markets here!  We walked several blocks — okay, make that 20 or 30 — taking in some sights as well as potential shopping locations, finally ending up at our apartment, having picked up a little more prosciutto, cheese, fresh bread right out of the oven, and a couple of bottles of wine.

After an hour or two of catching up on the news and discussing plans for the next day or two, we all walked on back towards their side of town with a mission of hitting up the supermercato (supermarket) so they could pick up some supplies to cover them a couple of days. Then it was back up to via Roma — yes, the same road with the one way lane headed East but with less traffic at this time of day — and put them on a bus towards home. Haven’t heard from them — hope they made it!

Giovedi, 2 Ottobre.  Palermo, Sicily

Success! We’ve now completed the first of two prime objectives of our trip to Italy — visiting our Capodice and Berardinelli roots! We left Palermo early this morning in our rental car, attempting to avoid some of the traffic. We drove to San Giovanni Gemini with my sister and her son Brett. This is the town my Dad’s family (the Capodice’s) was from. We were not expecting much, more of a farming town, but the town is absolutely beautiful! It sits on the side of a big hill, much like the towns in Cinque Terre or seaside of Greece.

When we arrived, we stopped at a place for coffee and talked to the owner (no one spoke English.) We had our iPad and it had a paragraph in Italian as to who we were and who we were looking for and the background of the family. He did not know the Capodice or Capodici name but there was a guy outside so he asked him.

The guy outside, an old-timer, knew nothing either but he took us to a school where the janitor had the same last name – turned out the principal of the school and his female assistant came to the door. The principal was a total jerk – no capisce – don’t understand – a real jerk! We think he just didn’t want to be bothered — the first uninterested, unhelpful Italian we have met on this entire trip. And a school principal at that!  The woman was getting really angry with him and would look at me, smile and I could tell by her expression she wanted to hit the guy — and try to help us. Well, we said ok and left, thinking nasties about him. We saw her yelling at him and giving all sorts of hand gestures as we left – he deserved what he go! 🙂

Our guide, who was having a little wine at 10:00 AM when we arrived at the caffè, then accompanied us over to 21 via Dante, the address of the house where our Aunt Rosie was born back in 1905 (we have the birth certificate believe it or not!) So without a doubt, we did reach at least one house that formed the network of houses where our San Giovanni Gemini relatives from two plus generations ago were born — our roots.

Our guide was so happy to be with us and couldn’t hug and kiss Connie and me enough! What a riot, he was one happy man, so we gave him some wine money for helping make our day!

After finishing here, our large tour guide gets in the car and directs us to another place and we meet a woman in a store who comes out to talk to us and we show her the iPad because I mean NO ENGLISH and our Italian wasn’t cutting it, but the paragraph we had explaining our purpose gave her ideas. She tells us to walk around and come back. She maka da phone call! So we headed off and since the church was half a block away, we made that our first stop.

Well damned if our “researcher” lady didn’t find another guy who knew someone with the same last name as mine. This man’s cousin from Elizabeth NJ was in town and she speaks both Italian and English.  Can you believe it? This bilingual Jersey girl also  has a house in San Giovanni Gemini. We followed her and her cousin to another house where some Capodici’s live – beautiful home with gorgeous back yard and garden. These Capodici’s welcomed us with open arms and kisses – only to find out we are probably not related but no one really cared because we all had the same name. Our family was no longer in this part of the town and we didn’t know where they were but these folk were all willing to help us continue our search — throughout Sicily we suspected. We said no, it’s okay and that we were happy to make it this far in finding our “roots” and meet some other Capodici’s. They wanted to cook for us but the English speaking gal from Jersey had meetings to go to since she was there on business and we didn’t want to inconvenience anyone.

So the Jersey woman and her cousin took us to a really cool restaurant and told them to take care of us. We had so much food it was unbelievable and it was so yummy. Seven courses just for lunch! Check out the photos!

This day turned out to be absolutely perfect and a day we will all remember! Brett was thrilled to have been with us and could not believe we did so well in such a beautiful little town! WOW!!!

Whatever comes next is going to have to top this day that’s for sure. Tired little puppies, all stayed home tonight and are going to bed early!

Venerdi, 3 Ottobre.  Palermo, Sicily

Last day in Palermo and I have to say one thing. Chad told me I’d probably leave a little bit of my heart in Cinque Terre but for me it is definitely Sicily! We have had so much fun and really bonded with the locals here and I praise them for their patience with our Italian! They have helped us when we say something incorrectly and they say it with a smile. We took a few photos today of things we have seen this morning as we ran last minute errands and we have a really cute photo of me with our veggie guy, who just happens to be easy on the eyes! You just gotta love it right? Yes, Jim took the photo, he knows his moglie very well.

Rest of the day was spent doing last minute laundry and packing since we are off to Positano tomorrow with one night in Pizzo and another night in Salerno before taking the bus to Positano. should be a good road trip and my sister joins us for the rest of this trip! This is the last post from Palermo – the new post will begin in Positano!

Oh our ah ha of the day. A couple of the women downstairs were really yelling at each other this morning. It went on for about an hour or so. Then it calmed down. Well it’s almost 9pm and they started all over again. We are on the 4th floor which is actually the 5th floor so we peeked out the door and looked down the stairwell and there’s a woman on every floor along with some children looking over the railing and listening to the fight. It’s almost entertainment for them. Believe me when I say it’s loud and we are definitely not going down there or anywhere near there tonight. Thank goodness this latest round didn’t start until after we got home from dinner. LOL

Ciao to Palermo and thanks for the  memories – all of them!