A Restless Vegan: palermo

When I'm on holidays, I love to get up early & go for a run, before the town really gets going. I have seen some really great sights doing this. In Palermo, after the 'penis on the loose' incident, I didn't feel particularly safe doing this, so C got up & we went for a quick walk around town instead.

This little shuttered window in a bridge near the Cathedral intrigued me.

An example of the most common architecture in Palermo - these flats were in pretty good condition, but many were not.

Me hanging on one corner of the Quattro Canti.

The main thing on our agenda was to see inside the Cathedral. The building is enormous - I couldn't fit the whole expanse into one photo.

The inside of this church has been described as 'disappointingly basic', which I don't agree with. I can understand where the author was coming from, both in terms of the grandeur of the outside, and the extravagant decoration inside many Italian churches. However, I loved the understated elegance.

This is one side of Porte Nuova - the New Gate. Built in the 16th century. Just a baby.

Unfortunately I've been suffering from a bad cold/flu which hasn't gotten better since I arrived in Italy. So I had to cut my afternoon short & head back to the hostel for a rest. On the way back I took a shortcut around the back of the cathedral & found this stunning decoration - more evidence of the many different cultural influences Palermo has seen.

A typical Palermo scene - there is a fair bit of rubbish littering the streets of the old city. It's not too bad mostly, but there were a couple of spots around the markets that had piles of rotting meat that I found quite confronting.

Palermo is a city of extremes - chock full of ancient monuments, all the buzz of a modern Italian city & evidence of poverty everywhere you look in the dilapidated buildings & rubbish lined streets of the poorer areas. It was an intense introduction to Sicily but I highly recommend it. It's completely authentic & the pace of life will get your blood pumping.

Day 3 saw us get up bright & early to meet our flight to Palermo, the capital of Sicily. From the second we arrived at the airport I was blown away by the dramatic landscape with volcanic mountains rising up behind the towns.

Our hostel was in a small street just behind this impressive building - the Teatro Massimo.

I was immediately taken by the numerous narrow alleyways lining the side of every major road.

The views of the mountains surrounding the city are everywhere you look.

Just one example of the beautiful mediterranean colours.

After dropping our bags at the hostel we wandered around the town. This is down near the waterfront where many of the older buildings are.

After I took this shot the infamous 'penis on the loose' event took place. We were walking along a narrow footpath beside a busy road and there was a pretty normal looking guy walking towards us. Well, normal except for the fact that his penis was hanging out of his pants. Not by accident. The area was pretty devoid of other pedestrians so we squeezed past him, avoided eye contact & practically ran to the next corner where there was a street vendor.

We've all heard the stories of Italian men & their admirations towards women. So far, I have to say, it's pretty accurate. I have never experienced so many flirty glances, outright stares & calls of 'bella' as I have here. But I think pulling your appendage out of your pants is taking the stereotype a little too far. The guy obviously had a problem, as most Italian men would have way too much pride to do something like that.

Part of me is laughing about it as a crazy story we can remember from our first hour in Sicily. The other part is furious that we even have to deal with this kind of aggressive behaviour, simply because we're women. Anyway, I won't bore you with a feminist analysis now - C & I have already had a lengthy discussion :-) At the very least, it served as a reminder to keep our wits about us as two young women traveling in an unfamiliar place.

Moving right along, here is the view from the Marina.

I think the mountains behind these look as if I have photoshopped them in.

We rested for a while on the waterfront, just watching the fisherman. The sun is scorching hot & everything is very dry here.

These impressive monuments are around every corner in Palermo.

The sheer scale of some buildings blows me away.

Here's some more library porn - well almost. This is the Archivo di Stato - the State Archives.

Wandering around we came across the Giardino Garibaldi. There were a number of sculptures throughout the gardens but this guy was my favourite - love the specs!

This magnificent ficus (Il maestoso ficus) is the centrepiece of the gardens. My feet barely touched the ground when I was sitting on the massive root system.

The Fontana Pretoria is a 500 year old masterpiece. It's currently locked behind this iron fence, for preservation I suppose, so we couldn't get any closer to investigate.

This ancient bell tower sits in the corner of the piazza, overlooking the fountain.

By now we were pretty hot & pretty tired. We bought some granita from this street vendor - he had a huge block of ice which he scraped into cups, before adding our chosen flavours.

We sat on the steps of the piazza with our granita & enjoyed the passing chaos of scooters, cars, cyclists & pedestrians.

Religion is pretty serious business in Italy, but even more so in Sicily. It feels like there is a church on every corner - kind of like how there is a pub on every corner in Australia. There are lots of tacky religious icons for sale, but these life-sized sculptures were amazing.

I can't remember the name of this theatre, but it was a beautiful building. The best part was the bird sculptures covering the facade - kind of difficult to see in the photo.

The Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana (like the State library of Sicily). We didn't go inside - libraries here are a little bit intimidating. I wonder if Australian libraries appear that way to people unfamiliar with our country?