Trip to Palermo

Buon giorno, tutti!

This weekend Philip was gone to Naples with the boys basketball again, so I decided to get out of the house on Saturday and take a little trip. I went with ITT, which is a company on base that offers day trips and extended trips to anyone. This was a trip to the capitol of Sicily, Palermo. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive on a tour bus. We visited the catacombes of an old church that contained bodies of all the old monks and nuns from the church, as well as people from Palermo who were able to afford such a luxury back then! It was pretty creepy, as some of the bodies had been so well preserved that they still looked alive! Two in particular were a baby girl from the early 1900s and a man who had a full beard on his face still! I took a few pictures, but felt kind of weird about doing so, so I stopped.

Next we drove to Monreale, which is a smaller town attached to Palermo, but more up on a hillside. There was a beautiful Normand Cathedral there from the late 1100s. The inside was glittering due to all the mosiacs created from shiny glass and real gold pieces. It was beautiful! The cathedral also contained the tombs of some Sicilian kings, Roger and William, I think. I guess I should have paid more attention to the guide, but I was busy taking pictures so you all could enjoy the views as well!

From there we drove back into Palermo and toured another cathedral which was also beautiful, with lots of marble carvings. I really don't know too much about that one, but the piazza outside was lovely. We also went to the Massima Opera House, which for all of you Godfather fans, was the backdrop for the scene where the granddaughter gets shot accidentally in the third movie. Very exciting, I'm sure, but as I've never seen the movies, I was just interested in the beauty of the structure. They were currently playing La Boheme.

Lastly, we ate a delicious Sicilian lunch (I had a stuffed swordfish dish--very good) and some cassata, a filled cake with an Arab background that was really sweet. Then we went home. It was a really long, but interesting day. The drive there and back consisted of Kelly green hillsides and snow covered mountains, very beautiful. We also drove under a rainbow for about 10 minutes--I think it was following us!

For basketball, the boys won 1 JV game, but lost both Varsity games:( Hopefully they will play better in Germany this week at the European Championships at Mannheim. Phil and I are both going, and I will be heading to the nearest H&M to load up on spring fashions for both of us (I'll watch a few games, too!:))

Hope you all are having a lovely week! Ciao ciao!