Monreale

Monday October 27, 2008

Well, today was to have been the big day for Palermo and Monreale, about 30 miles from us. We did not, however, realize that our GPS had something else in store for us. We had decided to go to Monreale first, visit the Duomo, leave the car there, and take a twenty-minute bus ride into Palermo’s bedlam.

So, we followed our GPS’ directions for Monreale – mistake Number One. Besides sending us on the usual back roads, it had no idea where the Monreale was; in fact, it had decided to send us to another town entirely. It was off by over 20 miles and nothing we did could make it acknowledge that fact. Rather, it kept sending us toward Corleone (of The Godfather fame), as if drawn by the fame. So here we are, 20 miles out of the way with a GPS that thinks it did the right thing. Monreale is the location of a famous church that was built in the 12th century and is just outside and high above Palermo. We started following maps and signs but all the roads we found went somewhere we did not want to go like Corleone. About 90 minutes later, we finally stumbled upon Monreale. I would say, though, that the area we traveled through was quite beautiful, though our trip was frustrating. (We also read when we returned that this area is the Mafia stronghold) A trip that should have taken an hour, tops, took three times as long.

The reason we were headed to Monreale was the church we mentioned, and it is really stunning. The interior is entirely covered with mosaics created in the 12-13th centuries to illustrate biblical stories. This is one of the most glorious churches we have seen and was even worth the effort it took to get there. Also part of the complex is a beautiful and tranquil cloister that we visited.

After this morning’s frustrations, we decided that we did not have either the mental reserves or enough time to visit (the notoriously trying) Palermo so we decided to put that off until tomorrow. En route back to our apartment, we detoured into a Sicilian regional park covering many square miles of the mountainous area around Cefalu. The scenery was beautiful and the vistas, both seaward and towards the high peaks, were balm for our frazzled psyches. We also stopped at a mountaintop oratory with beautiful views overlooking the sea and Cefalu -- a wonderful way to end the day.

Tomorrow is our last full day here and we plan to take the train to Palermo to see how it compares with Naples. We’re armed for bear and it should be interesting.

Ciao!

Mary Ellen and Tom