My portable trading set-up, I usually tried to get current with before-hours trading before leaving the AirBnBWe’d gotten into the habit of hitting up a cafe for a quick breakfast. Check out Sam’s teapot on the left: when she lifts off the top, there’s her cup below!We bee-lined back to the Palermo Cathedral first thing!I can’t even fit it all into a shot
Like most of the big European cathedrals, this one was built over an earlier one, which itself was built an over one… you get the point. The Phoenicians were first here as usual, then the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans… supposedly much of the current structure dates from 1185.
It is both huge and confusing. We bought two tickets which would get us into pretty much everywhere: we can climb up, we can descend below, but what we can’t really do is begin! Where the hell–pardon me–heck can you find the stairs up in all this glory? Shouldn’t Heaven be easier to find in a church???
In typical Italian fashion, the place everyone wants to find is hidden in a side alter, behind a monument of some sort.
There goes Sam, sneaking behind an ornate altarYup there is actually a door back thereA zillion sweaty steps later, we’re on the lowest rooftopThe plaza down belowRare shot of me!Time for a very narrow step up! (and up and up and up!)OK this is definitely a LOT higherThey really let you climb all over the place, I’m surprised there aren’t cars up hereThat’s our path, right along the crest of the roofHere’s where we finally return into the main church areaEarly medieval guitar player, metal obviouslyAfter exploring the rooftops, now we get to check out the cryptsA rare and precious sight: ancient vases!!The sarcophagi are cool as hell: most of them are from Roman times, and they were simply recycled through the ages for each newer crop of dead dudesJimi Hendrix would have loved this, from the year 1300 give or take… Pretty groovy!
The church is fabulous but unfortunately in 1802 or thereabouts it was decided to renovate the interior, which they did with a vengeance… When I first stepped into this place, although I was impressed with the huge spaces and the obvious grandeur, my first thought was “dang this place must have been bombed pretty hard and then ham-handedly rebuilt” so yeah it was depressing to learn all these wounds were self-inflicted from the geniuses in 1802 who wanted to modernize the place 🤦♂️
This is a cool as goddamn hell–ahem, excuse me–heck, it’s a chronological line that I don’t remember the details of exactly, but the sun taken at a certain time will show the month you are currently in: the signs of the zodiac are all up and down it.I’m guessing that is Cancer the Crab up on the right?ROFL that crazy car has followed us here, only now it’s removed its outer shell!!Back out on the streetSuddenly it’s lunch time…. Sam ordered the sampler because she fancied chickpeas, little did she realize they would be chickpeas hammered into flatbread 😂 It was very good tho!Wacko “before food thingies” I didn’t understand We both decided our meals were absolute barf, so lunch was kind of a flop 🙁Back into the hobbit hole for a bit of a siesta & check out the stonks
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