Europe - Palermo, Sicily

Day 11 - Palermo Sicily, Italy

 

It was a semi dreary day once we reached Palermo. It was neat being back on Italian soil again but for Sicily we didn't really have a game plan. We figured we'd just walk around and hope for the best. The main thing for us was just to eat more food if possible so we were ok with whatever else came our way! Our friends Kristii and Debbie joined us, we all met up for the buffet breakfast, before venturing off the ship.

 

We got off the boat and found a white train/bus thing that for a few Euros would drive you all around Palermo in about an hour. It seemed like a good idea to us, let's face it, we walked a lot at this point, so we forked over the cash and settled into the cab. Most of the places we saw were just pretty government buildings and, of course, the cathedral.

Catherdral in Palermo

In front of the cathedral

We only had about fifteen minutes before the bus/train thing left us so we walked around pretty quickly. Luckily this cathedral was free admission so we were able to see the inside too.

After leaving the cathedral we drove by a lot more things... like I said earlier Sicily didn't really have a lot that we were dying to see, but being on that tour gave us a really nice quick look at all of Palermo.

Antiques Market

Park

Gorgeous theatre

When we were reaching the end of the tour we saw a massive protest going on outside of one of the government buildings. Apparently people in Sicily really want to secede from Italy. They are not Italians, they are Sicilians. From what we heard people talking about later we think that is what this protest was about. It seemed mostly peaceful, just some shouting every now and then, but we made sure to steer clear of that side of town while we were there.

Once we passed the protest that was basically the end of our tour so we decided, naturally, to just walk around some more. And find food. We clearly have our priorities! We just stuck with the main street and wandered from there.

Off in the distance the view was gorgeous too

And who could forget Il Padrino? The Godfather was everywhere! I was tempted to buy a tshirt but I knew I'd never really wear it, so a picture of it would suffice.

Bread/Cookie Nativity

We did see "Luigi". Apparently Luigi is Palermo staple, we saw him on a few postcards and the like in a few shops as we walked around!

We passed this adorable cafe, to be honest I just wanted to eat there because of the Christmas lights, so we decided to stop for a quick bite.

I ended up ordering a Nutella Brioche (YUM) and an orange fanta (it just tastes better in Europe). Debbie got a rich, delicious hot chocolate and Ryan got rice balls (which were AMAZEBALLS... sorry). I cannot remember what Kristii got but we all enjoyed our food.

Then we wandered some more. I love the balconies of Europe. Honestly, going through my camera I cannot tell you how many pictures I have centered around balconies. It is as bad as the wedding dress stores.

Venetian Lion

Eventually we got hungry again and found a large restaurant thing close to the port. Everything looked delicious! I got a cannoli and Ryan had more gelato... then we realized the place had free wifi so we all parked and stayed for awhile! We eventually ordered some lasagna and I got to have my first Italian beer as I facetimed by best friend back in the states. No one in my family has an iPhone so they all got an email saying we were still alive along with some pictures.

Ryan shared some of his gelato with me... we purposely made a mess!

Yummy Italian beer

After hanging out at that restaurant we made our way back to the ship. I did buy myself a cannoli magnet on the way! It is proudly displayed on our fridge. Our cabin steward made us a penguin towel creature that night for when we got back and it was pretty adorable.

We went to the theatre that night to see the "Elements" show, which basically combined all the previous shows from the last few nights. The magician, the acrobats, the dancers... everyone. It was actually pretty fantastic. We then ended the night dancing in the Spinnaker lounge. It is amazing, even on vacation we become such creatures of habit!

Next stop - Naples and Pompeii Italy! Our last stop!




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