Thursday 30 January 2014

Cruising the Mediterranean 8 - Palermo, Sicily

After leaving Tunisia we sailed to Palermo on the island of Sicily.


Rather than doing an organised tour we decided to discover the city at our own pace.


We found the Politeama Theatre which was built in the late 1800s. It faces quite a nice piazza and is one of two theatres we found during our walkabout.


This is the other one - the Teatro Massimo, which is the largest opera house in all of Italy. These people are actually protesting about something to do with the theatre but because their signs were in Italian we have no idea what their protest was about.


This is one of the four faces of the very famous Quattro Canti which was built in the 1600s. Each building facing into the square is decorated with statues and fountains representing the four seasons and the four Spanish Kings of Sicily.


This is another very famous square in Palermo called Piazza Pretoria. Apparently, it is the exact centre of the historic city of Palermo.



We read that Sicilians refer to the Piazza as the Square of Shame due to the state of undress of all the statues.


Facing the Piazza is the Church of Santa Caterina. We have visited a lot of churches and while this one looks very plain on the outside you wouldn't guess the level of marble decoration on all the walls and floors inside or the number of beautiful chandeliers.



And this was the view of the harbour as we sailed away from Palermo at the end of the day!





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