Day 3 - Palermo by Bus

180 Years Old Tree in the Royal Garden

Today was our day for the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour of Palermo.  We find that this kind of tour is a good way to see a large part of a city without doing so much walking. We covered several stops yesterday so we only had to stop at the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) and the Cattedrale (Cathedral) of Palermo.

The actual name of the palace is the Palace of the Normans because it was rebuilt from a former Arab palace after the Normans conquered Sicily in 1072 and they named Palermo its capital. It was the home of Sicilian kings during the 11th and 12th centuries when Sicily was a major power. The palace itself isn't much to look at from the outside but it contains the magnificent Palatine Chapel added on by King Roger  II in 1132. They also have a very nice little “Royal Garden” which is of course more recent with trees “only” 180 years old. We also saw our first pomegranate bush there. Pomegranates in ancient Italy symbolized fertility and abundance so I suppose it's appropriate to be in a King's garden.

Santa Rosalia (left) with Mary,
Jesus and John the Baptist

The first stop in the palace was to see an exhibition of paintings featuring Saint Rosalia, who is the patron saint of Palermo. According to tradition (which starts almost every story we hear in Palermo), Rosalia was a daughter of a noble Norman family who was very religious and went to live as a hermit in a cave on Monte Pellegrino above Palermo. She died in 1166, but when the plague hit Palermo in 1624 she appeared to a hunter and told him where to find her bones and ordered him to carry her bones in procession around Palermo. After this was done three times, the plague disappeared and she became the “little saint” of Palermo.

Palatine Chapel

As I said, the highlight of the palace is the Palatine Chapel which was the royal family's private place of worship and it is stunning. It features ornate gold colored mosaics in the Byzantine/Arab style which was popular in the 12th century.  The figure of Jesus dominates the part behind the altar and biblical stories in mosaic or painting line the side walls.

Palermo Cathedral

After the palace we walked a short distance to the cathedral to have a better look. The cathedral is the burial place of Roger II and Frederick II who was the most powerful of all the Sicilian kings and also Holy Roman Emperor.  Like many things in Sicily, the cathedral was built on top of an earlier mosque and it still has some arabic features if you look closely. The interior is very plain in comparison to the Palatine Chapel, but of course it was used by the common people of Palermo. By the way, even today Palermo has over 300 churches. Not sure if all of them are still open, but you see a church or two on almost every corner in the old part of town.

For dinner we went to the Antica Birreria Moretti, which was recommended by the hotel clerk. A heavy rain had set in during the afternoon and so we walked 15 to 20 minutes each way in a downpour. The food was very good. Caponata (excellent) as an appetizer, Jeanne had Spaghetti Carbonara (not great) and I had Grilled Spigola (sea bass, which was very good) and Tiramisù (excellent) for dessert.