Long day sight seeing Palermo, taking advantage of the extra hour.
What a simply full on city !
Caught the 628 bus from the Sferocavallo harbour and then the 101 from the Piazza Independenzato which dropped us off at the Teatro Massimo in the Centre at 10.30 am.
An impromptu visit to the third largest opera house in the world ( Berlin and Vienna in case you are curious) and a 30 minute guided tour.
Next an archaeological regional museum housed in a beautiful tranquil old convent building.
Cost €3 each with free coffee and croissant plus €5 audio guide.
All the relics from Selinunte (which we visited ) were on display there.
Great use of CGI and audio visuals to explain about the history and construction of Selinunte temples
One of the best museums I've been to, beautifully curated and well explained in English. Next, we caught the tail end of the lively Sunday morning market at Bollaro and ate lunch in one of the main piazza restaurants , we found the Palermo Duomo en route to Bollaro.
An art /science / festival held over 5 weekends in Palermo had opened up places not usually open to the public all through October( called le Vei de Tresori)It was on today til 5.30 pm
We got a ticket for 4 visits for 2 people -€6 ,Andy much more patient than me waiting for a long 30 minutes in a queue to go into Sant Caterina, the first visit
I'm so glad we waited , it was fabulous OTT Baroque .Next, a nunnery where the nuns made almond biscuits, we faced a long wait for the cloisters tour so gave up and came out again and didn't wait for eithervour free almond biscuits or the tour...
Next in the same square, the people's theatre, the oldest in Palermo and recently rescued and run by volunteers. We were the only English people visiting so we had our own young , shy English speaking guide.
Across the square , we visited a very simple Arabic mosque/ RC church hybrid Knights of the Templar , a relief of plain bare walls after RC OTT extravagance, with pink domes on the roof . €2.50 each , this was not on the festival route.
Finally a tour of the handsome university law faculty by Carlo again our own friendly English speaking guide .Carlo was a Ist year law student there , he showed us around the old law library , which looked a bit like a Harry Potter film set . This building now admin offices downstairs and a reference library upstairs.
V interesting to hear him talk with passion about the anti -mafia uprising after the murder of 2 trial judges Falcone being the most famous .
If this wasnt enough sightseeing , Andy decided he would like to see some contemporary art , so we made our way to the art gallery ( all these places eminently walkable ) some lights were not working ,so we got a reduction to €5 each filled with artists who painted Palermo;
Paticularly liked Patania and Lojacono for the way light lit up their subjects.
Unfortunately , the exhib stopped at 1900's ..
We walked to the cross roads , the four quarters of the city districts heaving with crowds on Sunday night and musicians, food stalls , traders etc
We caught the first bus home ( day return ticket from the Tabbachi near our campsite €3.50 each for a full day travel )
Andy got chatting on the very crowded 101 bus, to an out of work law graduate, about to try his luck working in Barcelona , he recommended Cefalu for our last day .
With the help of GPS and the friendly student's advice, we found our bus back to the campsite.
I'd really like to come back here to this edgy , crazy driving, beautiful friendly ethnically diverse gem of a city.
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