Photos from Palermo, Sicily

Working my way through the vacation photos, these are some of favorites from our day in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.  The two things which stood out from the day were the beautiful stonework and sculptural features almost everywhere, and the crazy driving.  Here are a few photos of the driving.

From inside the taxi, you get a bit of a sense of the lack of driving lanes, it seemed that cars were just cramming in wherever they fit, along with quite a few horse drawn carriages.  A bit like China, except in Palermo the roads were narrower, and there were no bicycles mixed in with the vehicle traffic.

I wouldn't enjoy driving in a place like this.  It was more enjoyable to walk, where we could find sidewalks to stay out of the traffic ourselves.

Our first attraction was the Palazzo Reale o dei Normanni.  It was a beautiful palace which turned out to also be the home of the legislature / parliament, so we were restricted in how much we could visit.

I loved this huge entranceway to the Palazzo, which looked like an enormous door.  You can see the real door (dwarfed in comparison) at the bottom right.

There were lots of motorcycles parked at the Palazzo.  It seemed these were the vehicles of choice of the government representatives.

Inside the Palazzo, we found the Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel), which was another attraction we had on our list.  It was very gold inside.

Around the inside perimeter, it had the most illustrative summary of the book of Genesis which I've ever seen...

...starting from the story of creation, Adam and Eve's fall into sin...

...Cain and Abel...

...Jacob who was to become Israel...

...Noah's Ark...

...the Tower of Babel...

...Abraham entertaining angels, and all sorts of other good stories which one could identify if they spent enough time studying the photos.

I'm not sure who this represents, but I liked this funky carved stone post.  I just cann't get enough of all the carved stonework in Europe.  We have nothing like that here in Vancouver.

I noticed this rat carving on the door, for AJ.  It's an animal which is not often featured in carvings.

Just outside the Palazzo, I was intrigued by this tree with a very spiny trunk, and dried fruits hanging in the branches:

From my Google search, it seems it is a Ceiba tree, but I'm not sure if Ceiba Speciosa or Ceiba Pentandra.  And now I realize that I already posted these photos, but now I am enjoying them again.

There was another cathedral just a block or so further, so we went inside, and I took a few more photos:

We really have nothing like this in Vancouver.

Good thing we retreated to our ship every evening, so my neck had a chance to recover from all the looking up.  Just so much to see  in every direction.

There were some ordinary buildings too, like this one.

...and some familiar faces, too.  Fun.

Overall, a very enjoyable day.