Today is our first port of call, Palermo Italy. I’m especially looking forward to this port as it is where my mother’s family is from. My grandfather was born here.

Arrive: 7:00am
Depart: 5:30pm

Here are a couple facts (from the DCL website):
The regions best-known culinary dishes include bottarg (salted tuna roe), involtini di pesce (swordfish with raisin and pine nut stuffing), caponata (aubergine and eggplant) and pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines, fennel and raisins.)

Palermo also specializes in the craft of creating wooden puppets.

Our Excursion:
The Sites of Palermo
We began with a motor coach ride to Old Palermo. Our guide is full of facts.

We visit the famous “Four Corners” intersection in Palermo. This is the home to four statues representing the four seasons. Four statues depicting Spanish Kings and four female statues for the four patron saints of the town. Architecturally, Four Corners is a melting pot of Arabo-Norman magnificence, Palermitan baroque, and the work of craftsmen of the Middle Ages. Each sculpted angle of the Four Corners celebrates seasons, a patron saint, or a Spanish viceroy.

At City Hall Square we visited the Martorana Church (a 12th century Norman-Arab structure) and then the 12th century Cathedral at Palermo. Built in 1184 by the Norman king William II in the place of a Muslim mosque, the cathedral has undergone several renovations over the centuries, which have resulted in its current Neo-Classical style. The fourteenth-century door and the Gothic-Catalan style portico are worthy of note. The treasures that are kept inside, including some precious objects and embroidery found in the tombs of the Kings and emperors must be seen.

We had a delicious gelato break and then onto the motor coach and then off to Gustavo Whitiker’s villa and Palermo’s equivalent of the US Botanical Gardens. This family imported trees and plants from around the world. It was quite nice to wander around the grounds.

All too soon, time to get back on the bus and head back to the Disney Magic.

Pictures to follow.

Deb – Life — IT Too Short!

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