Post 6: First Day in Palermo

   I got up at seven and let Rachel sleep while I went out to find us breakfast and basic supplies, like a few bottles of Sicilian vino bianco... My hopes of finding a nicely stocked supermarket nearby were dashed. For one thing, Sicilians don't seem to get up that early, and most everything was closed, except a very basic bakery that happened to also sell milk. So breakfast was cookies and milk.
   Actually, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a super mercado in town. After walking around most of the day, we have run across a lot of souvenir and trinket shops, lots of jewelry shops, pharmacies, eyeglass shops and bars, a few restaurants, dozens of churches, but no supermarket. We ran across a couple of "mini markets" stocked up with about two dozens of eggs (for sale by the piece), a few bottles of water and coke, tuna fish, soap, and cheap liquor. I don't know where the locals get their food.
   Anyhow, after I wrote yesterday's post on the computer while Rachel got ready, we started our day around 9 walking up the two blocks to the cathedral, in front of which stands a gaudy cart made of plastered wood carrying the statue of city patroness Santa Rosalia:

    The Cathedral itself is a big styleless(or should I say style confused) mass built, modified, and added on since the 11th century, with a mishmash of different chapels and altars inside. It even was a mosque at one point.
   The treasury contained some interesting items, in particular a very old embroidered dalmatic and bishop hat, and the 13th century beadwork crown of a long ago queen:

   The crypt was huge and filled with stone coffins.
   We kept walking North to the Palazzo dei Normandi, which was moved with school tours. The Royal Apartments were closed, so all there was to see besides the arcades around the courtyard was the Cappella Palatina, a 12th Century wonder of gold mosaic work:

An "interesting" addition to the tour was a show of Botero religious paintings called "Via Crucis". I am no fan of Botero, and have always found his paintings of rotund women with tiny faces rather ridiculous, but his paintings of fat Christ and Saints are even more so. He would have been burnt at the stake for blasphemy had he lived under the Spanish Inquisition... However, I like his sense of humor, which unfortunately appeared totally missed on the respectful visitors and their guides. His dollar green obese Christ on the cross in front of the Manhattan skyline was my favorite. I can't say I like it, but it's funny:

   The wound to the heart strangely moved from left to right depending on context...
   Things an Artist has to do to become famous...

   We then started walking back towards the BnB planning to rest a little and drop the extra clothing that kept us too hot. We packed a lot of warm clothes, and it seems we may not need them. Not that it is actually that hot, but it is so muggy from the rain of the last few days that the slightest effort makes you hot and sweaty. Most Sicilians are still dressed like it is winter...

   Unfortunately, there are very few side streets in this part of town, and we ended up so far down Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle that we continued towards the water instead, looking for a Supermarket. 
  We stopped to see the incredibly baroque Chiesa del SS Salvador, all colored marble and stucco work:

 with exquisite marble floors in an infinity of geometric patterns:

     It also had an incredibly elaborate vaulted ceiling with both three dimensional figures and painted triangular panels and medallions:

On each side of the entrance were the largest and most magnificent pair of holly water fonts I ever saw:

We finally got tired of looking at store windows, and cut across the Vucciria area market and down to the harbor. We were by then looking for a quiet place to eat, but restaurants were scarce. We ended up stopping at the first decent looking one we ran across, and had a leisurely lunch of salad, mussels, delicious pasta with sardines, and leathery fried BIG squid legs with a lot of suckers, finishing with a frozen cherry mousse. There was an interesting and very attractive partial fresco on the vault painted in 1992 to look like remnants of an old fresco in a style reminiscent of Dali's:

    We were apparently in the wholesale jewelry district, and went into a very old junky looking jewelry store:

   It was packed with stuff, and we really had a good time looking through the amazing array of supplies: strings of every color stone, pearl and bead imaginable, and  thousands of findings. We ended up buying 100 Euros worth of odd shaped and colored pearls, bones, silver findings and such. I will have to make some stuff for Rachel when I come back home.
   By mid afternoon, we were tired, and rode a "scooter taxi" home to rest.
    While Rachel slept, I went on the Internet looking for the supermarket we never found, and discovered there were only three in all downtown Palermo, all on the edge of the old town. I walked to the nearest one in the rain, and returned with some wine, yogurt and strawberries, exhausted from the walk on slippery uneven sidewalks, the dodging of cars crossing each street in rush hour traffic, and the nearly as fierce handling of umbrellas by pedestrians... We have met the nicest people here, as long as they are not behind the wheel of a car or on a scooter!
    I happened by accident on a flea market and antique mall where I saw some nice old Santons. We will go back in the morning to check them out.