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.

Photos from Rome

The day we were in Rome, it poured rain all day.  Funny thing, the port of Civitavecchia is nowhere near Rome.  So we had a choice of shuttle, taxi, or train to make our way into Rome.  I had read that the fastest and cheapest was the train.  But by the time we took the bus to the train station, waited for the train (which was about 20 minutes late), and then the train and a couple of metro stops to the Colosseum, 2 hours were gone already, which meant we had just over 4 hours there, before making the 2 hour return trip!  So we had to hustle.

We didn't even have time for lunch, we just grabbed sandwiches from a small shop at the metro, and ate as we travelled.

First stop was the Roman Colosseum.  It was still an impressive structure, even after all these years.

It was interesting to see all the passageways underneath the Colloseum, and a bit sobering to imagine the many men and beasts being led into the arena, many of them to their death.

There was so history in such a small area.  In various directions there were other historic buildings and ruins.

There was this impressive arch next to the Colosseum.

We headed down the road to the Roman Forum, or what remains of it.

I appreciated that seagull posing in the shot.  I waited for him to turn his head to get a nice profile.

Another angle, with no visible seagulls, but with the Colosseum in the background.

There was a building marked as the Temple of Romolo.  Quite different than the other cathedrals we had seen on the trip.

In that same area, there was this Roman bath, still fairly well preserved, it seems.

If we had a few more days, we would have liked to see more in the area, and also would have visited the Vatican and especially the Sistine Chapel.  But we had just enough time to wander a bit further, to this impressive building, which housed a museum...

...complete with guards outside standing in their ponchos in the rain.

So many beautiful architectural details, I didn't know what to focus on...

...but I knew this shot with another posing seagull was a must.

Inside was also very beautiful.

This looked very Roman to me, with the horses and chariot.

There was also a cathedral next to this building, so we stepped inside.  Beautiful.

It's funny, outside the cathedral was a big sign indicating that the entrance was free, and that anyone charging an entrance fee was not legitimate.  But there was also a beggar at the door holding out a dish, saying Grazie to each person entering the church, collecting coins.  I suppose that's what the sign was all about.  We saw this at two different locations, so it seemed that the beggar at the door of the church was a typical fixture of a Roman cathedral.

On the way back, we were all pretty exhausted.  I had the joy of seeing my teenagers sleeping.  It is something I don't get to see very often anymore.  (They'll shoot me when the found out I posted these photos of them.)

So other than the rain and the short timeframe, it was a successful visit to Rome, but we definitely left enough to warrant another visit in future.

Photos from Genoa Italy

I've already posted some photos from the beautiful Staglieno Cemetery.  But I took many more.  It was so dramatic, and so beautiful, I could have stayed even longer if the family had allowed.

At the entrance to the cemetery, there was a flower shop with beautiful silk flowers.

The other location we enjoyed in Genoa was the Castell d'Albertis (Albertis Castle).  It was the beautiful home of a sea captain, built on the remains of an old fortress.

 

Some parts of the castle were still decorated as his beautiful home, with artifacts collected by the owner from his travels around the world.

 

 

I really liked this beauty on the balcony.

 

The remainder of the castle was converted into a museum of world culture.  I was amused that the first exhibit was a totem pole...

...which looked very familiar to me, coming from the west coast of Canada.  Sure enough, the first exhibit area was of the Indians of the northwest of Canada and the United States :

The museum then covered south america, and continued to Australia, China, India, and various other parts of the world.  Lots of pottery and other hand crafts.

From the castle, we could again look down and see our cruise ship in port.

Love those palm trees also.  I think I would have liked a couple more days to explore more of Genoa.