Palermo, Italy

Good morning all.  We are in Rome this morning Deb, Lary, Linda and Marla are out at the Vatican this morning so I am taking the opportunity to update the blog, pictures will be posted later as Deb has all the photos with her on her phone.  I had seen the Vatican before and be to be truthful I was going to go in and holler "I believe" but didn't like the idea of spending time explaining myself to the Polizia. :)

So Gretchen our Garmin direction frauline routed us to our hotel in Palermo the Hotel Garibaldi which is right on the main square in downtown Palermo. Now this was the only hotel I had booked as Linda had done a great job on all the others but I took responsibility for this one. SO Gretchen was pissed off at us or something because she took us off the autostrada through some of the most desolate slums we had seen so far.  Narrow streets unbelievable nasty garbage laying all over nastier looking people damn near had to fold the mirrors in to make it down some of the streets and avoiding sideswiping parked cars and Vespa's.   Now I am starting to get nervous as I am sure everyone one else was about what kind of place I had booked us into.

We get close to the hotel and there are all manner of Polizia out and they are parked in front of the entrance to our hotel (which turned out to be quite nice and roomy).  Out on the main piazza there appeared to be a demonstration, phoned the front desk and they told us exactly where to pull in with the car and when he had returned the police vehicles had been moved.  When asked about the demonstration the desk clerk goes "no... no demonstration... is just Friday in the Piazza!!  Oh well Viva Italia!

Saturday we got up and toured Palermo on a double decker bus called an off/bus, you pay 20 Euros each and it stops at about 16 different location around the city while you listen on audio earbuds about what you are looking at the time.  When something interests you you get off go meander around and then get back on the next bus that comes along about every 30 minutes.  The influences in Sicily start with the Greeks, Carthaginians,Romans, Moors, Normans (who came down during the crusades) back to the Italians until Montgomery and Patton landed during WWII.  They REALLY don't talk much about that here unless to mention how Palermo was the most bombed city other than Rome during WWII.

You see churches that were once mosques converted back to cathedrals Eastern Orthodox converted to Roman Catholic.  A huge cross culture but the two most prevalent are the Greek and Arabic influence in architecture and culture.

One of the stops that Deb and I took off the bus was the botanical gardens.  Deb took me in there with me tripping over my lip pouting (you all KNOW how much I adore horticulture), but it was truly interesting, all the fruits such as lemons and oranges, then olives all were brought in from Africa by the Moors.

Had a great evening that night went to an outside cafe for some libations where there was a piano player then on to a nice restaurant around the corner where I had a pork loin that was very moist and done in a masala sauce.  It was a nice change from pizza and pasta :)

The other thing that happened on Saturday was that Mt. Etna blew its top for a while first thing in the morning, ash and lava spewed out the airport in southern Sicily was closed for a few hours but no excavations.  We just missed seeing it all by one day.

Sunday morning we took off to western Sicily to a town called Erice the place is about 3000 years old founded by the Phoenicians, on top of yep another mountain gawdamn these guys liked to see their enemies coming at them from a long ways away.  I figured out that by the time any attacking armies could make it up the cliffs they were too worn out to fight.  To get to the town the last 5 kms of road took us over half an hour all switchbacks and steep grades.  We did enjoy touring the town but it was uphill all the way around town until we headed back to our car.  It is going to be good to get back home and have a meal where the table doesn't have a 5 degree tilt to it when we are sitting at it.  Here is the link for the town site quite interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erice

Then on the way back we stopped at the most complete set of temple ruins in the world at a town called  Sigesta now I know I have been bitching about all the hills but I finally had an epiphany as I walked up the hill to this one.  There must be some truth to Atlantis really sinking into the sea because ever since then every damn temple, auditorium and town has been built on the highest damn point they could. :)
Check out the website  what was really neat about this one is that it was never completed so you can see how they laid the stonework and interlocked it all and placed the columns I enjoyed looking at it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segesta

Yesterday was our travel day to Rome.  Now we had some fun with returning the car, we get to the airport and there is no fuel station within 15 kms of the airport to top off the tanks so Gretchen guided us to an Esso station which on Sundays only has self service.  No english translation on the pumps and the laziest most useless gas station manager I have ever seen in my life. I pulled in and he is sitting slumped in his chair and just glares at us as I get out of the vehicle.  We struggle with the pumps and the card reader finally this fellow from Bangladesh comes around and assists us.  He wasn't an employee he just worked for tips but that useless prick just sat there the whole time and just glared at me. I mean he never even got up out of his chair just slouched there the whole time.  I figure his Uncle Vito made him work there Sunday morning and he wasn't too pleased about it.

Then we go to return the car... now when we did get the car I had not only bought extra insurance online to cover any deductible but when the agent had us get a policy that would cover "everything no problem no deductible"  uh huh.   The car had extensive damage on it when we picked it up... bottom of the panels under the sliding door and pretty well every corner had some type of road rash to it.  But No problem sir its all covered.   The lady looks at the car and basically says all damage from the door handles on down is not covered.  OK what about the complete insurance I bought.  Only from top of the tires up everything below is on you.  After we politely explained that the damage was already there, she goes .. no is not recorded on your slip... ok check your database sweetheart... which she did and thankfully it was recorded in the central database.  Dodged the bullet on that one.

So landed in Rome last evening and after collecting our bags we see a shuttle service that will take us to our hotel for about the same price that it will cost us for two taxis.  Now this was fun. Seriously. Our driver Mauricio leads out to his vehicle a loaded Mercedes Van plush seats just loaded luggage all fits in great and I get the swampers seat with everyone else in the two rows behind us.

Got it ... Ive got the view.. the first one at the scene of the accident when its going to happen.  This guy was one of the most gracious people I have met didn't understand english well but told me if I spoke SLOOOOOWLY he could understand.   Hard to speak slowly when this guy is cutting in and out of traffic we make a left hand turn where there is only one lane but two have already formed and he makes a third lane totally going around all lanes that are there.  Turns out the guy drove transport trucks all over Europe for 17 years and this car service in Rome for the past 4.  Great driver truly he was but the sensor alarms for when your car is too close to others was constantly going off.  And all the way he is singing along with the radio that is tuned to American pop tunes.  It was a lot of fun... didnt think we were going to make it without bumping into something but the guy did a great job.

Got checked into our hotel then went for dinner at a restaurant near the spanish steps.. visited the Trevi fountain, threw our coins in and made our wishes. Saw a lot of monuments last night very awesome.

OK This was a lengthy one will try and update before we leave room and upload a bunch of the remaining pictures.

Ciao
D&D