Palermo, Sicily - Part 2
38°07'55" N, 13°20'8" E
“We live on second times. First times are for hasty and urgent people. For those who are surprised when the clock chimes and don’t realize that, on the contrary, wonder lies in repetition, time and again, in choosing for the second time the first time.” - Antonella Salamone
Set your pulse on fire:
As the days passed we were able to see deeper into the layers of the city. Space opened up for us to reflect and ponder what questions to ask. We ventured into corners and alleys taking the time to say hello and to connect in meaningful ways to the people of Palermo, or Palermitani. We also ate a billion more oranges and we may never be able to go anywhere else simply for the quality of the citrus present here. We also ate almost all of the street food.
Several sources name the Palermo Botanical Garden, or Orto Botanico di Palermo, as the most beautiful in the world. We are avid botanical garden visitors and we have to agree. The space is a welcome break from the constant buzz of Palermo traffic. There is an antiquity surrounding all of the plant specimens in a patina that is like nowhere else. The ground below the cactuses is blanketed in what other gardens may call weeds. Spent oranges are everywhere. Just over the garden wall the rusty skeletons of the neighboring gas plant peek through the trees. The garden, much like Palermo itself, isn’t pretentious. In that modesty it is a stunning respite from perfection. A reaffirming lesson that we are all incredibly beautiful just as we are: weeds and all.
According to a Wikipedia article with no sources there are 106 churches in Palermo. We venture to guess that number is about right. On a rainy day we visited two of them. Chiesa di San Cataldo is a part of the Arab-Norman Palermo, a string of UNESCO World Heritage sites. The structure dates to the era of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, built in 1154, and serves as an outstanding example of a socio-cultural syncretism between Western, Islamic, and Byzantine cultures. Today you'll have to pay a separate fee at each church to get in, but they'll give you a discount if you visit them all. Admittedly it is outstanding to see the confluence of cultures. The craftsmanship and preservation, in spite of extensive damage of WWII bombings, has us in deep gratitude for every historian and archeologist committed to preserving relics of the past for future lessons. From what we have observed, Palermo is a city of tolerance and has quite a bit to share with the rest of the world.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and has been a strategic location for trade routes making the history here pretty epic. We wandered into the Salinas Regional Archeological Museum after strolling past the sito archeologico domus Romana, Roman ruins encapsulated in a worn iron fence with a faded sign indicating that the ancient mosaics from the floor could be found across town. We arenʻt really sure if we ever found the mosaics, but we did find piles of history. The museum has so many columns they are stacked up in the courtyard! Key takeaways: the Romans wandered around with curses scrolled on sheets of lead in their pocket (that’ll teach you for being mean to other people); Khaled Mohamad al-Asaad was a renowned archeologist in Syria and was publicly beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in 2015 at the age of 83; and that it would take a lifetime to truly grasp the history of this place.
Top secret: the best cannolis in Palermo are made by the nuns in a little shop called I Segreti del Chiostro in the Chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria. If you wander in close to sunset you just might get the courtyard to yourself and then you can pay €5 each (they won’t give you a discount from the other churches) to go to the roof. The trek up is a spine-chilling wander through the back halls of a very old church. Venturing to the top at sunset was possibly the most centering experience during our time in Palermo. From a few stories up the city is radiant and glimmers in the setting sun. Surrounded by the tolling of at least ten different church bells we embraced the opportunity to support the teenage security guard’s make out session with her boyfriend after they told us we had to leave in Italian. We all agreed that none of us understood so we could all stay just a little bit longer.
The UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity includes many interesting things, and specific to our adventure Sicilian puppetry. We attempted to catch a show, but seemed to keep just missing them so we adventured to the museum to surround ourselves with hundreds of puppets. While standing amidst the suspended animation of many creatures Mary asked “do you think puppets have spirits?” Yikes!
We know our time in Palermo is not over by any means. We will certainly return. The city is filled with incredible art, epic food, and a historic undercurrent that is impossible to ignore. Our next stop is Santa Flavia and the Bagheria area. Home to all of Krystal’s Sicilian ancestors.
“But you don't come to Palermo to stay in minimalist hotels and eat avocado toast; you come to Palermo to be in Palermo, to drink espressos as dark and thick as crude oil, to eat tangles of toothsome spaghetti bathed in buttery sea urchins, to wander the streets at night, feeling perfectly charmed on one block, slightly concerned on the next. To get lost. After a few days, you learn to turn down one street because it smells like jasmine and honeysuckle in the morning; you learn to avoid another street because in the heat of the afternoon the air is thick with the suggestion of swordfish three days past its prime.” ― Matt Goulding