Palermo, Monreale, Segesta, and Erice

I'll start with our arrival in Palermo: my first impressions were made by a cranky tired 21 year old girl. I wasn't too impressed with the city at all. Then again, it was only about 7 in the morning and we were lugging our bags from the boat to the hotel and weren't even sure if we'd be able to leave them there. It was tiring just thinking about having to carry that heavy pack all over God's creation. Thankfully, we were met with the wonderful fact that we would be able to leave our bags in one of the hotel rooms that we would be occupying! THANK THE LORD!

Just images of us leaving the boat - I was relieved because I wasn't feeling so hot on the ship.

We had about an hour to get some coffee and "breakfast" (meaning a cornetto or something of the like) before our day of sketching and sight seeing would begin. Most of us hung out in the park outside of our hotel waiting for the bus and our professors to give us the go ahead.

The first day trip was to Monreale. We saw the Basilica of Monreale and they were having some kind of nursing conference/pilgrimage while we sat in the back and did some perspective sketching and wandered taking pictures. It was a really cool church - the images of Adam and Eve that circled overhead and the intricate tiles gave the basilica a lot of character. We looked at the Cloisters next and did more section sketching as well as detail sketching. The space was a garden space - very beautiful, outlined by a covered pathway and beautiful columns. It was peaceful there - quiet. Sometimes its hard to go out and sketch where there are so many people walking in and out of the scene - I get caught up in watching tourists and such. But here, here we were able to just sketch - few interruptions and great weather. Our lunch break was incredible before heading back to the bus. We found the perfect spot to take pictures and see out over Palermo and to the water that surrounds Sicily.

We stayed there for a good ten minutes before grabbing potato pizza and window shopping. Adam, as you can tell from the picture below was very tired...

Then, once back in Palermo, we were given the afternoon off. Having known that we were all exhausted, and most likely feeling the same, our professors gave us the option of catching up on some shut eye or going to explore the city. Amy, Maureen, Matt, Chris, Adam, and I decided to venture down to find a beach.

What we found instead of a beach was this:

In Palermo, they have a very long promenade that sits between the city and the water. We walked a long ways to get there and were greeted by these...platforms I guess you would call them...that people can lay on and get their sun tans or the like. It was crowded with local pre-teens and teenagers playing soccer and hanging out. It was neat in its own way - no beach, but cool none-the-less. We did come across a very tiny patch of sand, and did some sea glass searching and found quite a few good pieces.

We then headed back to find a place for dinner, only to learn that in Palermo, nothing is open until at least 6:30 - and even that is incredibly early. SO, we continued to wander as our famished stomachs ached for food. Once finding dinner, we headed back to the hotel to just enjoy the rest of the evening there and catch up on the sleep we had been lacking.

Sunday was day 4 and we spent the day in the city. We went to the Cathedral of Palermo and did...you guessed it...MORE SKETCHING!

This was just a picture of Maureen, Connie, Amy, and I outside of the Cathedral.

It was a busy Sunday morning with a lot of time at the Cathedral and then a lot of walking and wandering to study the surrounding piazzas and palazzos and gardens throughout the city.We stopped at a beautiful garden where you can find the largest trees in Italy. The only way that I can describe them is that they were massive tree trunks and roots that sprouted out from the ground - multiple trunks for one single tree. We had fun goofing around, climbing and hanging from the vines before we were told that we had to do more sketches.

When night fell, we got together in one of the hotel rooms and had a little "happy hour" with our new found favorite Prosecco (its a lot like champagne but its some kind of wine) before finding one of the best restaurants I've ever been to, Primi Piatti Ristoranti! The food was incredible - if I'm not mistaken, I got the Spaghetti Carbonara - DELICIOUS - and the best tiramisu I've ever had. Plus, we had a lot of time which helped greatly.

Monday we went to Segesta and Erice...Segesta first.

There is an original Greek temple there that is still preserved to this day. We did more sketching of the structure and got to experience something that dates so far back - I couldn't even imagine something like that existing in the states. In fact, I know that it doesn't.

We only spent about two hours there - if that - before making our way to Erice, a very small town on the peak of one of the mountains in Sicily.

The bus ride there was quiet, a lot of people were still exhausted, but yet again, the surrounding landscapes kept me awake. Upon arrival, it felt as though we had morphed into a town in Ireland - it was straight from a fairytale. The views were amazing and it was so fun to see something like that. It was pretty much a ghost town.

Few people were actually out and about - my guess is that they had left the town to go to work elsewhere - that or there just aren't that many inhabitants. My favorite parts of the trip always involved the more peaceful and quiet atmospheres rather than the craziness of downtown. Not to mention the views from the top of the mountain. It was so amazing!

For dinner, we went back to Primi Piatti and then back to the hotel to sleep. It was a good day all in all, and we were happy with anticipation of our six days in Cefalu that were ahead of us.