I am back in the USA for the rest of the year after spending the last few months in Sicily. I will miss the large Italian island, but am glad to be back home for a while. Anyways, I did spend last weekend in Palermo!
The city of Palermo is located on the Northwest side of the island, and it is the largest city and capital of Sicily. The photo above is of Mondello beach which is absolutely beautiful and perfect to visit!
We started our journey on the train early on Saturday to get there just before noon. Walking around Palermo's streets we saw some cool things, sketchy things, and occasionally stumbling upon a really neat things. These awesome little cars will definitely be something I miss from Italy!
The churches are all so old and simply beautiful. The outsides stand sturdy and simple as they enclose the interior which is ornately decorated and wonderfully arranged.
It is really dark in some of the churches as they don't have much in the way of lighting besides a few windows and candles, but they can be a nice break from the heat as they usually stay cooler with the thick walls as insulation.
The streets of Palermo are more insane and dangerous than those of even Catania! I didn't think it was possible to have worse drivers than what we had already seen and yet Palermo has them. There are plenty of odd little 3 wheeled taxi cars called a tuk tuk. I did not ride in one, but we did end up taking a normal taxi a few times in Palermo because the sites are all so spread out.
This tree was in a park that was in the center of Palermo near the harbor. The many tree trunks all extend up to branches of the main tree. The branches grow roots down to support its growth. The oddest and coolest plant I have even seen for sure!
This is the big harbor of Palermo where the big and small ships share the waters alike. The locals will even jump in from the rocks as a way of relaxing during the long hot days of Sicily's summer.
The shipyard is filled with these little sailing and fishing boats. It was too hot to hang out here for too long and we were hungry for food. The place had a very chill mood to it making me want to just take a seat and waste the afternoon away.
Another thing you may see a lot of in Palermo if you visit is horse-drawn carriages. There were so many of them around town towing tourists through the narrow streets.
This is the square where we found our restaurant to dine at for lunch. It was super fancy with really good food and wine to be served! One of my favorite and most memorable dining experiences in Italy from the summer.
This is the famous cathedral in Palermo that is gigantic and very ornately decorated. There is a lot of history in the part of town around it as well in the architecture. Something that we could have explored more if we had more time here to visit.
Spending sunset on the beach in Mondello was an excellent decision! The water was beautiful and the perfect temperature. The sandy beach was a bit dirty, but that was ok because it was sand instead of being rocks that hurt the feet more.
This is a dock with a restaurant at the end of it and the large rock in the background separates Mondello from Palermo. The beach is surrounded on both ends with similar mountains that just seem so surreal and different from other parts of Sicily that I have been to.
It did rain a little on Sunday with the little time we had to spend in Palermo before catching the train back. We went into the catacombs under the city. It was beyond creepy with all the human remains. I couldn't take photos, but there was still skin on some of the bodies as they were standing up/hanging on the walls in rows. There was also the best preserved mummy in the world in there which is a 2-3 year old girl that died about 100 years ago. The body has not deteriorated at all.
While in Palermo waiting for places to open for us to get food we had a little portrait shoot next to a graffiti wall. The girls did some posing naturally as I snapped off shots of them. The candid moments captured turned out really well! I am very happy with the 5 minutes we spent doing that and the way they look in black and white.
I will most definitely be missing all of the awesome people I have been able to spend this summer with working and traveling with. So long to Sicily, and here is to many more travels in the future!
Peace like a river...