Palermo, Sicily, Wednesday 11 June, Day 49

This morning we set off early to visit the Cappella_Palatina which was established by Roger II in the enormous Palazzo Normani which is built over the top of a Carthaginian then a Greek fortress. You can see the different layers of construction quite clearly down in the basement. When we arrived at the Cappella mass was in progress. In Italian, the mass is similar to the Latin of our childhoods. We knew where it was up to, and quite enjoyed the peace of the ritual, and that the church was still working as intended after so many centuries. The interior has its own magnificent mosaics, some of which seem not to be closely connected to any biblical theme. It was nice to spend some quiet time contemplating the works, until the mass finished and the tour groups flooded in, cameras flashing away.

Our next planned stop was Monreale, a town about 10 kilometres out of Palermo and perched up in the mountains. We had researched which bus to catch, and we did well buying the tickets and finding the stop. We came unstuck however when the bus, despite having its destination clearly marked as Monreale  Duomo stopped some 4 kilometres and one very steep mountain road short of the Duomo.  "On foot" the driver said, waving his hand in the general direction ahead as he kicked us off.  There were couple of shifty looking taxi drivers waiting who immediately descended upon us. The whole thing felt like a scam, so we declined their services and set out to walk up the hill in the very hot sun.

We discovered on visiting the tourist info centre in the town when we finally arrived that there is a shuttle bus, which our bus driver had neglected to tell us about. Whatever, we were a bit hot and addled, and running short of time thanks to the experience of getting to Monreale which rather detracted from our experience of the church, which really is magnificent.  The Christ Pantocrator mosaic there has serious presence.

The church is almost an illustrated old and new testament picture book but not well lit in the side naves, so a few panels are very hard to make out.

We caught the shuttle bus down the hill and after a long hot wait, the connecting bus back into Palermo, which gave us a chance to observe Sicilian city traffic habits which were sometimes hair raising. We saw one girl, mobile phone to her ear, do a U turn despite traffic bearing down from both directions, then park her car at right angles to the road, completely blocking the footpath, all without missing a beat in her conversation.

We had a tasty Sicilian lunch in a little restaurant in the park near Piazza Independencia, home for a siesta, then another walk around, then dinner in our favourite restaurant of the trip. Very, very good food.  The proprietor shook hands with us as we left and we wished one another well with great sincerity.

So, our last night in Italy. Tomorrow we fly to Rome then to Istanbul, another country and another completely different culture.