Day 15 - Last Day in Sicily

Duomo (Cathedral) at Monreale

Today was our last day in Sicily and there wasn't much left on the itinerary. In fact, the only things left were the Cathedral at Monreale and some shopping in Palermo later. Hard to believe things are coming to an end, but that's the way every trips seems to end.

We had one more "adventure" in the morning and that was to mail a key back to the hotel I had accidently taken it from. The adventure part was the Italian Post Office. First, the Post Office system does much, much more than mail and I'm pretty sure I was the only one actually mailing something as I didn't see any packages. I don't have a clue what everyone else was doing but it certainly took a long time. Half of the office seemed to operate like a bank and I saw one woman get maybe a thousand in Euros. I was in the postal side's line for nearly an hour before it was my turn. Everyone else seemed to be filing some kind of paperwork. Fortunately the clerk took pity on me and filled out the envelope for me and we were on our way again.

Mosaic Interior of the Cathedral

After the post office, we drove to the cathedral. It is located on the outskirts of Palermo and was 90 minutes by bus if you knew the right schedule and right stops. The car seemed infinitely easier and safer even though it meant driving through crazy traffic again. It was about the same a driving through New York City traffic except that motorcycles everywhere complicate things.

The cathedral was started in 1174 by William II of Sicily and built in the Norman style. The interior, like most of the old churches is done in mosaics in the Byzantine style. Very beautiful.

Palermo

One last picture and that is a shot of Palermo taken from Monreale, the city down below in the distance. It was sunny on the day we arrived and mostly sunny today but the other three days we were in Palermo all had some amount of rain so we now have it in our minds that it always rains on Greek Temples and in Palermo!