Category: Travel

Our local tour guide Enricka

A head with three legs. What the heck? This is the Sicilian flag.

The original flag was created in 1282 during the rebellion of the Sicilian Vespers. Divided diagonally from the upper hoist-side corner; the upper triangle is red and the lower triangle is yellow; in the center is the Sicilian triskelion featuring the winged head of Medusa with three ears of wheat protruding from it. Sicily was known for providing the wheat for breads and pasta to Rome. The legs on the flag represent the different regions of Sicily.

Turn a corner and wow!

This is a busy city and the capital of Sicily. Young people are everywhere. Smoking is everywhere too. Scooters, skateboards, unicycles, basically anything with wheels is moving in all directions. It’s comical to watch them all move, each thinking they own the space.

Warm, dry, beautiful evening in the Piazza Italia. Tomorrow morning we bid Arrivederci to Palermo and board our steel chariot for Agrigento.

(Not sure where Close Encounters mothership lights in the sky came from.)

Sicily is famous for its oranges, including blood oranges, Tarocco oranges, and Navel oranges. The island’s climate and location at the foot of Mount Etna create ideal conditions for growing citrus fruits.

First stop today was the Monreale Cathedral near Palermo. It was started in 1174 by King William II, with various construction phases continuing through 1267.

King William, the Good, dedicated the Cathedral to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Note that the postcards and artwork for sale behind Mary are not sanctioned by King William.

70,000 square feet of gold and colored glass mosaic tiles illustrate all the major Biblical stories from the Creation, through the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

To give a sense of scale in this space, the palm of Jesus’ hand in this picture is six feet tall.

Monreale, being a city on a hill, overlooks Palermo and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the northeast. Note the flags. Being in the middle of the Mediterranean, and this time of year, there are frequent warnings of high winds. This one was for 36 mph gusts:

My maiden name was Daley. What are the odds of sitting next to the Dailey’s for our first dinner with our tour group?

Bernie and Debbie Dailey ate with us last night and we had a lot to talk about. I said Daley and spelled it out, and he said Irish. My family he said is from England, dating back to the early 1800’s. The Dailey’s have traveled the world and they gave us some tips about the northern lights, Scotland and other exotic places.

What are the odds?

Globus is a big company and the intros around the room for those we are traveling with spoke very highly of this by mentioning this is our 8th, 9th, trips with the company. This is our second.

Dan said wouldn’t it be nice if we had the same tour guide as last time in Italy? I said yes but, probably highly unlikely. Well, I’ll be darned if it isn’t Laura the very same tour guide we had last time in 2019, 6 years ago. She is from Rome. I walked up to her and gave her a hug. Mia familia she says. And she remembered Dan’s face. That’s because he’s so handsome I said.

Now we know for certain that our trip will be filled with every little detail we experienced on our last trip here. What are the odds?

CANNOLIS

~Diane