Palermo, Sicily—A Birthday, a Count’s Home, a Royal Palace, and Some Wanderings

23 May 20195 November 2024 | B+B

PART THREE 13 – 20 Maggio 2019

It is hard to believe we can condense so much of a week in Palermo into three posts. This post includes Bonnie’s glamorous birthday night out and ends with the fate of Angelica (the focus of the Teatri dei Pupi) and further observations on fashion.

We met up with our new Palmero friends Domenico, his wife Laura, and their energetic boys Lorenzo and Ricardo.

Bonnie’s Birthday—A Night at the Teatro Massimo

The magnificent Teatro Massimo once appeared in a Godfather film.

Bel canto soprano Jessica Pratt performed.

Nightlife just getting started at 10;30
PM

Il Palazzo Conte Frederico

The notable palazzo of Conte Frederico is built into the walls of the city and one of the old towers. It has been in the possession of the family since the 1700s, and the family still uses it as their home. Rooms are on a slight curve following the alignment of the old wall. Family members give hourly tours to help defer the costs of upkeep. The palazzo is filled with family mementos, art, trophies, weapons, needlework, and kitchenware.

The family were members of the Free Masons who supported Garibaldi’s unification of Italy. A Masonic symbol is tucked into this fresco.

Map of Palermo prior to filling in the harbors.

Arab air conditioning: Shafts in the stone walls allow updrafts to pass through wet fabric, giving natural cooling.

The first Italian flag contains the king’s emblem.

Palazzo dei Normanni

The huge Norman Palace was the seat of Norman kings in about 1100 A.D. and later the official location of heads of governments.

The kings, of course, had their own chapel within the palace, the Cappella Palatina, covered in mosaics.

Street Art

Lots to see. Graffiti artists can work legally on abandoned buildings.

Music

Robert came across this middle-school group practicing during one of his morning walks.

Video!

Teatro dei Pupi

Yes. More Opera dei Pupi. Palermo has at least four puppet theaters (we went to two and tried to attend a third), and there are more in the rest of Sicily (we went to one in Siracusa). The puppet Saracens are still trying to take control of Europe. This time Paris is the site of a battle. The two cousins, Ronaldo and Orlando, keep knocking off monsters and slicing and dicing Saracens with the focus of their love on the beautiful pagan Angelica. We still do not know who wins Angelica’s favor.

Video!

Oh. Did we mention that we went to another performance in Palermo? No photos .were allowed.

We tried to see a performance at a third Palermo puppet theater on Sunday night, but it was cancelled because the audience was too small (was that the night of the Game of Thrones finale?). Other puppet performances had been packed. The good news is that the elderly padrone gave us a tour behind the scenes where three or four people operate the puppets and several dozen puppets are stored.

The better news is that Robert mentioned to him that after seeing three performances, he still did know who Angelica ends up with. Ronaldo? Orlando? Someone else? Robert finally got his answer, and the owner emphasized that who one falls in love with is a matter of the heart and not logic.

Catacombe dei Cappuccini

Our new friend Domenico gave us an impromptu tour of this strange crypt. 2,000 clothed corpses are on display. Another 6,000 are behind closed doors. Believers saw this place as a kind of purgatory, where they could wait before going to heaven. This treatment of bodies went on until the mid 1920s! Corpses are sorted in corridors by type: priests, monks, professionals, women, babies, etc. One Italian ambassador to the United States. Worth a visit, but you need a guide to fully understand it.

Spanish Inquisition in Palermo

This unusual museum lies within two historic buildings restored by the university—buildings where the Spanish imprisoned and tortured those suspected of crimes against the Church. Authorities needed only two anonymous reports of crimes to arrest citizens, which led to many abuses. The Dominican Order administered the trials, prisons, and torture, and kept prisoners for years. Some were released, some were exiled, and some did duty in the Spanish navy. All their properties were confiscated, but a few had enough wealth to pay for their liberation.

The extraordinary part of this museum is seeing the extensive graffiti drawn on the walls of cells by prisoners with reddish scrapings from the terra cotta floor tiles or ashes from the fire pots reserved for the more privileged. Drawings, portraits, complex scenes, text in several languages. The graffiti was hidden under plaster for centuries, and when it was recently discovered, it took five years to uncover and preserve.

Here’s and There’s

Palazzo di Giustizia where mafia trials take place, including the famous Maxi Trial from 1986 to 1992 of 475 mafia figures.

Style Notes

Italians really don’t like to be cold. The weather has been flirting with summer for a couple of weeks now, with temperatures in the high 60s and sometimes 70. Many tourists have stripped down to tee shirts, shorts, and sandals, but Italians are still bundled up. Many are still in down jackets and wool scarves.

That’s all on Palermo!

Palermo, Sicily—Mercati, Cibo, e Bibite

22 May 20195 November 2024 | B+B

PART TWO: 13-20 Maggio 2019

Palermo = Food! Palermo’s mercatos are world famous for vendors who shout and sing to attract customers. Farm to table has its roots here. Nothing goes to waste if it can be fried, grilled, or roasted. We don’t think they have found a part of a pig that they can’t use. Once again, we relied on Domenico’s expertise to introduce us to a range of Palermo cuisine! We, of course, furthered our research on our own.

Domenico, our guide, with Robert. Part of his tour was through the kilometer-long Ballaro’ mercato. Great introduction to Sicilian tastes!

Robert was the only one to try a Pani câ meusa (a spleen sandwich). In fact he liked it so much he had another from a vendor in Piazza Marina later that week.

At this stand, they already have the spleen boiled. The vendor then slices and sautés some.

Arancine—fried saffron rice balls filed with meat, cheese, or vegetables. Delicious.

Video!

Cibi e Bibete

Our neighborhood Palermo restaurateur holding a bottle of blood orange amaro liqueur. Very good.

Palermo Part Three follows.

Palermo, Sicily—La Cultura, Una Fontana, e 200 Chiesi

21 May 20194 November 2024 | B+B

PART ONE 13 – 20 Maggio 2019

A leisurely drive from Castellammare past rugged mountains shooting out of the sea and rolling hills planted in vineyards brought us to Palermo about noon. Driving into the city was not as hair-raising as we had been led to believe, although Bonnie had carefully studied the street map to find a hotel not too deep into the narrow, twisting streets of central Palermo. Nevertheless, the hotel was in a delightfully “colorful” neighborhood of noisy street life that continued until at least a 11 pm. After unloading luggage and our expanding collection of stuff, like wine, to drop off at cousin Luciana’s in Rome, we found parking about a block from the hotel where we left the car for a week. When a hotel says they have free parking, it usually means street parking that is free.

By chance, a college dorm mate of Robert who lives in France had just posted an enthusiastic recommendation for a guide of walking tours, so we immediately signed up. Domenico’s tour was a great orientation to Palermo that was cultural, historic, and gastronomic. Domenico Aronica is the guy to go with: www.domenicoaronica.com. Domenico quickly became a pal, and on another day we had drinks with he and his young family, and on a third day we visited Palermo’s catacombs together.

Domenico explained to us that the population of the central city was 280,000 before WWII, but after Allied bombing it declined dramatically, and it is only 80,000 today. (A new section of the city was built during and after Mussolini.) Incredibly, many distinguished palazzi in the old city still remain damaged and unoccupied. But in the past 5 to 10 years there has been a resurgence of interest and investment in the area. Key to this has been closing two main cross streets for pedestrians. In addition, the waning of mafia influence since the early 1990s has encouraged investors to renovate the empty palazzi for hotels or condominiums.

The number of tourists on the streets in mid May, primarily Italians and other Europeans, is astonishing, and tourism is now an important economic driver in the city. Some of the tourist increase comes because of wariness about travel in the Middle East and North Africa. But there is also growing awareness, reinforced by UNESCO’s recognition of its heritage, of Palermo’s vast collection of extraordinary churches and museums. And despite the waves of tourists in the streets, key sites are often quiet. We were sometimes the only visitors in a museum. This may be partly because there are so many sites to visit. Hotels and restaurants are abundant and not fully booked.

Many cultures

Palermo’s culture and architecture today results from the layering of many populations over many centuries: Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, and French. The Normans especially embraced the other cultures in their architecture and administration of government. Now, it is tourists who have invaded Palermo.

Sign written in Italian, Hebrew, and Arabic

Quattro Canti

Baroque in all its glory, the plaza is the intersection of the two major roads in the historic core. Each corner is sculpted in three layers: at the base, one of the four seasons, a Spanish ruler above, and finally crowned with a saint.

Manca Minchia

Our guide Domenico brought us to the “Fountain of Shame” in the heart of the city. The fountain was designed for a garden in Tuscany, but the original customer did not pay when it was completed, so it was shipped to Palermo is pieces instead. Beyond the over-sized scale of the fountain, this Renaissance work contains many figures, all nude. Placed between the Church of Saint Joseph and a nunnery made it a scandal. The nuns had all of the prominent minchia removed. Domenico hypothesized that the nuns took the minchia back into the nunnery.

200 Chiese

There are 200 churches in the historic core of Palermo. Some in use. Some not. We did NOT see all but did see a few exceptional examples.

In addition to all the churches, there are many shrines throughout the city.

Cattedrale di Palermo

Chiesa Santa Caterina d’Alessandria

The elaborate interior of this church, mostly sculpted marble, was paid for by the wealthy patrons whose daughters were subscribed to the Benedictine order of cloistered nuns.

Sculpted marble of many colors explodes from the walls. This differentiates Palermo’s baroque churches from those in Modica and from those in Rome whose interiors are painted and have less ornamentation.

The cloistered nuns gave their confessions through screens to the seated priest.

Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio (La Martorana)

The Normans were sent by the Pope as mercenaries to conquer Sicily. After succeeding, they decided to stay and not remain under the Pope’s control. This mosaic shows Christ crowning Roger II as king of Sicily, a ceremony usually performed by the Pope. Get the message?

Chiesa di Gesu

Cattedrale di Monreale

We took a 30-minute bus ride to Monreale to view an exquisite example of Norman architecture that blends Muslim and Christian craftsmanship and artistry.

Muslim work consists of geometric patterns. No figures. Muslim craftsmen completed floors and lower level of walls. Christian craftsmen did marble and mosaic figures above.

View of Palermo in the distance next to the water

Palermo Parts Two and Three follow.