Palermo, Sicily - Part 3
38°07'55" N, 13°20'8" E
The warm weather brings Palermo to life:
As we exited the airplane we noticed that the air has started to warm since we were last in Palermo. Our minds skillfully replayed the route from plane to train to cobbled streets. Our feet carried us across the much busier streets, no need for maps this time. The keys collected from a lovely writer on the Via Roma to unlock our small slice of solace in the Ballarò. Ballarò, meaning I will dance, how beautiful and telling of our return to this place. This time we will dance as this city of infinite secrets begins to unravel just a little more. We are beginning to speak her language and are starting to understand. We returned just in time to witness the beginning of many holidays including Eid al-Fitr which rendered the Ballarò a very quiet place and La Festa della Liberazione, or Liberation Day: a day that commemorates the total liberation of Italy in 1946.
An adventure to say hello to our dear Antonella unveiled a stunning coastline and the mechanisms of beach going in Italy. Unlike in Hawai’i where the beach should not be owned, here you can buy a seat on the sand for the day. In the distance the Torre delle Mandre inspires stories of centuries past from the brilliant mind of our friend, the archaeologist. Porticello is a quick train ride away and we wandered back home through the market catching the last of the day’s swordfish and hopscotching over the small rivers of torn and rotten ends swirling towards the street gutter.
Krystal will forever be inspired by the work of Richard Avedon and when we saw that the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Palermo had a show we immediately made our way there. There is no photographic experience in the world that compares to standing in front of a giant silver gelatin print of Avedon’s work. The prints will always be traditional because there is no Epson printer on earth that compares to the magic of a silver halide print, especially not a print made from a 4X5 negative. Swoon. The show did not disappoint and after so many months away from home it was fun to be surrounded by American faces.
The city of Bagheria held an event to celebrate I segreti della terra (the Secret of the Earth) at the Villa Cattolica. Antonella let us know about the event and we pulled out our best outfits and made our way to the celebration. From what we could gather through Google Translate and the buzz around the event a fellow named Mario Tozzi has an absolute ton of gems and minerals he has collected from around the world and the City of Bagheria wants to start a science museum. Many very important men spoke about the importance of science, technology, mathematics, and engineering for the youth and Krystal was flashed back to her days as an education consultant. The gems and minerals were impressive and we got to meet the Mayor of Bagheria, Filippo Tripoli! After the event we stopped in to Friggitoria Sirchia for an epic pile of arancini, panelle, and croquettes all washed down with a birra moretti.
On a wander around the neighborhood we stumbled into the Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti. It is a stunning house of worship and a part of Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalú and Monreale. Given the epic history of conquest in Sicily the places of worship have served many denominations. Arab construction meets Christian renovations and Latin Crosses. The whole mash up is truly fascinating and we are grateful that folks just sort of added on to the old buildings instead of destroying them to build new. Crowned with red domes that would be at home in Baghdad or Damascus, we highly recommend a visit here over the Chiesa di San Cataldo which seems to have a longer line every day as summer gets closer. The stroll through the garden is also a wonderful gift to the senses and a welcome respite from the city streets.
We were so excited to discover Il Genio, a three weekend festival that opened up the geniuses throughout Palermo. The patron Saint of Palermo, in partnership with Santa Rosalia, the Genius of Palermo is depicted as an austere old man who has at his feet a dog a symbol of fidelity and, wrapped around his arm, a snake and emblem of continuous rebirth. Our weekends were filled with super cool adventures and started with a visit to see photographic treasures that survived the war at Casa Museo della fotografia “Matilde Incorpora.” The lineal descendants of famed Auguste Lumière, one of the inventors of the cinematograph, have a studio tucked at the very top of many, many stairs. They were excited to share the treasures of their family collection. The air was warm and laden with the smell of photographic chemicals and the shelves were brimming with photographic treasures.
The next weekend we headed to our local library: Biblioteca comunale di Casa Professa “Leonardo Sciascia.” A 263 year old library…no big deal. A pair of university students took us on a personal tour of the space. We assume not everyone is as excited about libraries as we are, and it was stunning. The bookshelves are adorned with over 300 portraits of famous folks from Sicilian history. The best part - it is a real functioning library and we plan to go back to do some research.
Just down the street, the Archivio Storico Comunale also had their doors open for a tour. Another personal tour with a brilliant university student revealed the intricacies of the building where records from 1200 to the mid 20th century are stored. The sheer volume of paperwork housed on the shelves is staggering. It is no wonder none of the records in Palermo are digitized - they just kept too much stuff! Wandering through the shelves and learning more about the history of the city was an absolute gift. We wrapped up our Il Genio adventures on a passeggiata, or evening walk, led by Igor Gelarda from Villa Giulia where we uncovered the 16 Geniuses of Palermo. It was a super fun stroll through the city with a lot of folks. We are grateful for the magic of Google Translate which enabled us to read the whole tour in English as Igor talked.
Another lovely discovery in the neighborhood was Parco d'Orleans. A gorgeous oasis of green dotted with roses and the only ornithological park in Italy. The best part is the whole thing is free. We will definitely be back with notebooks and coffee just to soak up the expanse of green and totally wild collection of birds.
Our first order of business was securing a grocery cart which the cobblestones in the neighborhood quickly proved to be a formidable challenge. The best way to make space for the occasional arancini is to pummel a grocery cart across uneven terrain and then carry your groceries up six flights of stairs. In fact, we would take this trek over a Kona Costco run any day! We also found an absolutely epic cafe called Tèco (thank you Riccardo) and have been enjoying a change in scenery while pumping out lots of projects.
We imagine one could spend a lifetime in Palermo discovering new things. We are beyond grateful for the opportunity to return with new eyes to this ancestral place for Krystal. Speaking of ancestors, we found her great grandmother’s birth record. Proof that everything in Palermo, abandoned or not, belongs here.