Viva Italia!!!!!

Palermo

Today we visited Palermo, the capitol of Sicily. It’s a relatively small city in terms of how it feels and it’s filled with incredibly dense traffic with lots of motorcycles. The day was hot – it was in the 80s and the Mediterranean sun beat down upon us. For this port, Sarah and I decided to “go it alone” and not pay for a Disney sponsored excursion. I think we made a good call (not that people who booked Disney excursions are wasting their money – everybody we talked to had a good time…).

We paid 20 euros a person for a double decker tour bus that you could hop on and off. It had decent pre-recorded site information via disposable headphones, but we basically used it for the transport. I guess taxis are expensive and with the traffic, things can get ugly. The company is “sponsored” by the city and is the official tour bus. We got off and saw several churches including the cappucian catacombs (only 1,50 euros pp). Creepy stuff – mummified remains of centuries old people line the walls. If I am ever charged with creating a setting for haunted house, I now know exactly what I’ll do. Ok, it’s not that bad because you do get natural light, it doesn’t really have a smell, and there are lots of people walking around. Interesting to see.

After that we went to the main cathedral, which was incredibly well kept. The bright and roman-esque marble interior of the church was a stark contrast to the dark gothic churches of Barcelona. We then went walking around via roma, the main shopping street in the town (think Chicago’s magnificent mile). We didn’t really get anything, but stop off and get some gelati – phenomenal! {Bill}

We had lunch on the boat and then Bill and I played some intense ping pong. So intense that afterwards Bill needed a nap… I hung out at the main pool and tried to watch cars but they turned off the movie less than half way through. Then I watched part of the deck party and got a pic with Mickey.

Tonight was the magic show it was ok. I’m not a big “magic” person; I’d rather watch fireworks on Main Street. I think Bill felt the same way. Dinner tonight was animator’s palette show night. Service was top quality completely different than the first night. And the food selection was great. We had a small table tonight (just 4 of us) so we had to “make up” for the others in eating extra desserts… Bill and I ordered 3 and then we were served a Mickey ice cream bar and our table was served a Sunday too.

Tomorrow is our private tour of the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. {Sarah}