The Adventures of Wickse, Eric & Sharon: Palermo

We were very much looking forward to spending a couple of days in Palermo, however we weren't quite sure what we were going to find there. The city itself is a very intriguing blend of east and west, being in turns an Arab Emirate, the seat of a Norman kingdom, the German House of Hohenstaufen, passing then to the Holy Roman Emperor, then to the French, the Spanish and the Austrians, until the Spanish Bourbons united Sicily with Naples in 1734, and it later became part of a unified Italy. This final transition happened as recently as 1860, so it's no wonder that we had more than a bit of trouble identifying the people and their city as being 'Italian', something they certainly do as well.

Porta Nuova, gateway to central Palermo

...in detail

Fontana Pretoria, otherwise known as the 'Fountain of Shame' to the many church going Palermitans who were offended by the flagrant nudity back in 1573

But look around and you can see evidence of this cross cultural history everywhere, from the proud Norman palazzos to churches which look more like mosques, and grand baroque buildings. Compared to other towns and cities in Sicily which we've visited so far, it's quite an architectural hotch-potch, but I guess that's exactly what makes Palermo as interesting as it is! It must be said though, that this city certainly isn't going to win any beauty pageants. It is dirty, dusty, decayed and really quite shabby. As our friend Cheryl says, it's hard to tell whether you're in the Med or in Cairo. But again, it's a working city, and that's what makes us like it.

On the streets of downtown Palermo

There certainly are many things to see and do in this town, but with the temperature still pushing into the high 30s we decided to take it easy, and concentrate more on soaking up the atmosphere rather than dashing from one tourist queue to another. And so we did.

Marionettes in a shop window

Acqua anyone?

The highlight for me was undoubtably the Capuchin Catacombs. Now, you know what a catacomb is going to be like - We've been to the ones in Paris, where having run out of space in the cemeteries, Monks went around stacking up skeletons and skulls and bits of bones along a network of tunnels in disused limestone quarries. But ladies and gentlemen, the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo are quite a bit different...

In what is at best a seriously macabre tourist attraction, but also a rather extraordinary historical record, over 8000 Palermitans from the last few centuries have been dehydrated, perserved, embalmed (call it what you will) and dressed in their favourite clothes before being strung up or laid down, some in glass cases, within the excavated tombs beneath the city.

Apparently this was originally only intended for the Capuchin monks, but it seems it fast became something of a status symbol to be perserved in this manner along with the monks, and many prosperous citizens requested to be preserved here, dressed in specific clothing, in their wills. Some also asked to have their clothing changed at frequent intervals!!!

Within the spooky, spooky corridors there are many different areas specifically set aside, one for monks, for professionals, for men, for women, for children and even for virgins. Some of them were just well spooky, with bits of their skin falling off, and others stuck for eternity in poses which make then look like their final moments were spent in utmost pain. Or maybe that's the rigamortis? Either way, this has to be the most spookiest, shockingest, seriously bizarre place I've ever visited in my life, and even though it was me that was desperate to visit, I found myself needing to get out after only a few minutes. Everywhere you look there'd be even more eyeless faces or skeletons scaring out, some with their arms outstretched towards you. Ugghhhh!!!

It is still completely beyond my comprehension just why so many parents were intent on dragging their small children through the corridors of this horrible place. Or maybe they were paying respects to their great grandfathers??

Yet again, photography was not allowed, but I just can't resist just one to show you courtesy of Google Images...

Capuchin corpses

If you'd like to see some more embalmed and otherwise Capuchin corpse action however, click here

I'll leave it up to you...

Souvenir shopping at the catacombes

Embalmed bodies aside, we took a tour - in Italian - of the Norman Palazzo (now the seat of the Sicilian government) and the intricately mosaic-ed (or so they tell us as it was all being renovated and hence covered up) Palatine chapel.

The imposing facade of the once Norman fortress

The three tiered loggia of the Palazzo dei Normanni

We also stopped by the magnificent cathedral, resplendent in its distinct Arab-Norman style - all ziggurats and geometric patterns - which is unique to Sicily. The Norman conquerors it seemed, were so in awe of the cultured Arab lifestyle they found when they arrived on the island, that they shamelessy borrowed and improved upon it, spending vast amounts of money on palaces and churches, and encouraging a cosmopolitan atmosphere at court. They say that William II, the grandson of the conquering Roger I, even had a harem!

Amongst all this wealth and decadence I guess it was only a matter of time (400 years apparently) before Norman rule of Sicily collapsed...

Cathedral of Palermo

The Cancerian line

Architectured-out we ambled further downtown, ate absolutely superb gelato - the best of the trip in fact, and wandered, rather cautiously through the streets of La Vucciria. Not the most comfortable of places to walk around actually, even in broad daylight. It's no wonder I guess as I currently read LP's description of the area as "marking the medieval chasm between the rich and poor that existed in Sicily right up until the 1950s", it's infamous street market once being a "heaving den of crime and activity".

A few quick snaps and maybe it's time to head home...