Those of you who are loyal readers of our blog will know that the first few weeks of our summer never go quite as planned. And this one is no exception. Actually, it’s a doozy.
We headed back to Palermo. Relatively easy flights PHX-JFK-CDG-PMO with overnight stops at PHX and CDG. In Charles de Gaulle we get a text from the yard saying our boat launch will be delayed by two days. We are excited. If the delay s only two days this will be record-breaking efficiency. We are so excited that we ignore the cello music in the background.
When we get to Palermo, the yard says that our boat is not ready and that they might not be able to do all the work we asked for. Apparently, the weather has been bad since April and they are behind. We gently point out that they have had our work list since September of last year … There is a pause… And as usual it takes negotiation and compromise but we end up with a plan that we all can live with.
Work restarts in earnest
And then it happens.
Lori starts to feel sick with flu-like symptoms and spends the next four days flat out in bed. Then I get it. Where Lori’s experience was a long slow burn, mine was more a fierce blaze that was like the worst flu that I could imagine. We kept trying to tell ourselves it was flu, but the collective wisdom said COVID. Wow - that was not nice at all.
So, if that’s what COVID is like with all our shots up-to-date, I really don’t want to think what it would have been like without them.
With that nightmare behind us we get back to our regularly scheduled programming of walking (albeit slowly) around Palermo while waiting for our work to be done. One good aspect this year is that the weather has been weird in Sicily. For months it has been raining, it is quite humid and cool. The Sicilians hate it; they want it to be hot. But, as we recuperate, we take delight in the extremely comfortable temperatures. And to be honest, the Sicilians are undaunted by the unseasonal weather. Street life goes on unabated.
Palermo is as scruffy as ever but perpetually interesting when you scratch the surface just a little.
I wonder what the cruise ship passengers make of it. There’s usually anywhere between 1 - 3 ships docked each day. Little chains of numbered tourists play follow-the-leader with their more flamboyantly numbered tour guide. They look puzzled, perplexed, bored, hot but never like they are enjoying it. The shore trips are the penance they have to pay for all the fun they can have back on board.
Sicily has a long history of receiving visitors, welcome or unwelcome, arriving by sea and Palermo has been at the center of this. So much so that it may be the theme of its new marketing campaign. We received a recording of a meeting between the mayor of Palermo and his marketing consultants:
Mayor: So what have you come up with as a slogan for the city?
Consultants: Well, to be honest that’s been a bit problematic.
Mayor : I know - that’s why we’re paying you the big Euros.
Consultants: So many of the good ones have been taken - “the Florence of the South”; “the Athens of the North”. “Garden City” would have been good but we’re pretty sure you need to have more than two really nice gardens for it to be credible. Taking the lead from New York, we seriously considered “Palermo - the Big Arancina “. We even have a draft graphic.
Mayor: No! I don’t want to be the mayor of a city whose emblem is a stuffed rice ball.
Consultants: We thought you’d say that - pity. We thought it was kinda cool. Sooooo ., you may not like this either, but we propose “The World’s Most Conquered City”.
There are strange noises on the recording at this point. Sounds a bit like a mix of a stunned silence and espresso being spluttered from multiple mouths simultaneously.
Mayor: You are joking aren’t you?
Consultants: We are consultants - we have no sense of humor.
Mayor: OK. I may regret this but I’ll play along.
Consultants: Palermo has been conquered eighteen times
Mayor: Eighteen? Surely not?
Consultants: We have a list on this slide.
The Phoenicians
The Carthaginians
The Greeks
The Romans
The Vandals
The Visigoths
The Byzantines
The Arabs
The Normans
The Swabians
The Angevins
The Aragonese
The Spanish Hapsburgs
The House of Savoy
The Austrian Hapsburgs
The Bourbons
The British
The Bourbons (again)
Mayor: OK You win. But I do have one question…
Consultants: Shoot.
Mayor: Who the **ck were the Swabians?
Good slogan or not, the consultants were right, the Sicilian population is a blend of many genetic backgrounds. For example, there is a high percentage of people with reddish hair or blue eyes (not typical of southern Italy). And unlike many places, the newcomers were frequently assimilated peacefully into the island mix. And with the people came their crops, their cuisine, their culture, their scholarship, and their architecture.
The cultural mix in Sicily has long been very sophisticated. The first Norman kings of Sicily spoke Arabic fluently (and had harems but we won’t mention that). Also the level of literacy in Sicily in the 12th century was higher than was in the 18th and 19th centuries. The legal system took account of the ethnic background of the litigants. Arabs could be tried under Arab law, Jews under Jewish law and Christians under Norman/Roman law.
And when you walk around you see three different styles of architecture - Moorish/Arabic, Norman and Baroque (in a distinctively Sicilian style). And, if you look closely, you can see these styles being blended together.
This year we got to visit the one major landmark we haven’t seen - the Royal Palace. Built in the 12th century by the first Norman king of Sicily, on top of a much earlier Arab fortress it is a stunning example of the blend of Arab and Norman styles. While the exterior is more functional than elegant, the interior is breathtaking.
But Sicilians do, apparently, have their limits when it comes to civic art and architecture. In the middle of the 16th century, the city decided it needed a fountain in the Piazza
Praetorian. Rather than design a new one, they purchased one from a villa in Florence, disassembled it, moved the pieces about 500 miles and installed it in the square. The Palermitans were shocked; the nude statues offended their sensibilities and from that day on it has been known as the “Fountain of Shame”. And yet it’s still here shamelessly filling the square.
The more prudish among you may want to skip the next picture.
[I knew you couldn’t resist looking.]
Another thing that Sicily in general and Palermo in particular has inherited from the Arabs is a love of open air markets. Palermo has three.
The range of goods on sale stretches from raw shellfish, to fresh vegetables, to cooked entrees, to cheap electronics, to bric-a-brac. All jammed together in no particular order. You are permanently surprised by what’s on sale on the next stall.
Add to this, people, Sicilian people, lots of Sicilian people, all of whom love to shout, argue, gesticulate in a good-hearted aggressive manner. If you don’t know how to shout with your hands, you will be at a total disadvantage here. It all feels wonderfully un-European.
And then there’s the food. We got our arancine early at a street-food restaurant on the edge of the Balaro market that’s been in business since 1837".
Our tuna tartare was just a few streets away in a decidedly up-market osteria which is becoming one of our favorites.
But no spleen sandwich for Lori this year; the little cafe was closed due to some kind of construction work outside.
We find Palermo familiar and comfortable but it’s time to start on our trip round Sicily.
The weather forecast is not good for an extended period so careful planning and execution will be required. So we will head to Trapani and lurk there until we can see a good weather window to get to Malta.