Travels in Italy--Palermo (Part 1 of 4)

Not long ago, we visited Sicily. 

Sicily is a island located next to the toe of the Italian boot.  It is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Sicily is an amazing place.  What we expected to see and what we saw were completely different.  We hope that the blog posts about Sicily convey the amazing things we saw. 

Because we visited several cities, towns, and historical sites in Sicily, there will be many posts about Sicily.  The places we visited include:

• Palermo
• Erice
• Segesta
• Agrigento
• Piazza Amerina
• Siracusa
• Noto
• Taormina
• Mt. Etna

We hope you enjoy the virtual visit to Sicily as much as we enjoyed our actual visit. 

Palermo:  The modern city of Palermo began its life as a Phoenician settlement more than 2,750 years ago.  Of course, the Phoenicians were not the first humans in the area of Palermo.  Humans occupied Palermo and the rest of Sicily long before foreign visitors arrived to settle, colonize or conquer the island.  Over the centuries, a series of civilizations have desired to occupy Sicily and call it home, including the Phoenicians, Greeks from different city states in Greece, Romans, Carthaginians, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards, French and finally the Kingdom of Italy.  So, Palermo, like the rest of Sicily, is a blend of cultures, traditions, languages, religions and contradictions.

Palermo is the capital of Sicily and the fifth most populous city in Italy with over 1 million inhabitants in and around Palermo.  Palermo is a large commercial and industrial city with factories, tall buildings and a large port and a lot of traffic.  Despite Palermo's noise and bustle, we enjoyed exploring the city.

We started our exploration with a walk.  Along the way, we saw a mixture of ancient and not-so-ancient sights and some beautiful works of art. 

In the heart of the old city, we found a park set in the ruins of an old building.  The building was an 18th century palace that was destroyed by bombing in WWII and was later converted to a park to honor non-Jewish Sicilians who worked to protect Jews during WWII.  The park is known as the Giardino dei Giusti, or Garden of the Righteous, like the original in Jerusalem.  (On a related topic, there was a Catholic church that had been built on top of a Jewish synagogue after the Spanish expelled the Jews from Sicily around 1500.  Just this year, the Catholic diocese in Palermo transferred ownership of the church building to a Jewish organization. Sometimes, things are made right.)

Il Giardino dei Giusti

In Palermo's old city, ruins of the ancient fortifications of Panormo, a former name of Palermo.   

The Church of Saint Dominic:  The Chiesa di San Domenico is a very large Baroque-style church in Palermo, completed in the 1700's.  The site was home to a small 13th century and a larger 15th century church.  The church is known as the Pantheon of illustrious Sicilians, because many notable Sicilians are buried there, including one especially courageous Sicilian.

La Chiesa di San Domenico

The Column of the Immaculate Conception, in front of the Chiesa di San Domenico

Chiesa di San Domenico:  a shrine with Saint Dominic

The church is now the burial site of Giovanni Falcone.  He was a Sicilian lawyer who dedicated his life to prosecuting members of the Sicilian mafia.  He was aggressive and successful and, in response, a mafia boss ordered his death in 1992.  A 1,000 lb. roadside bomb was used to kill him, his wife, and three police officers.  His murder was a turning point because it renewed others' efforts to prosecute and imprison mafia members.  Falcone's killers were captured and jailed for life.  The 25th anniversary of his death was celebrated during the week of our visit. 

Pretoria Fountain:

The Fontana Pretoria is a monumental fountain in the old city.  It was completed in 1554 in Florence but later sold and moved to Palermo in 1574.

San Giuseppe dei Teatini:  In the old city, we discovered a large church, San Giuseppe dei Teatini.  The church was built in the 17th century and is beautifully decorated in the Sicilian Baroque style.

While visiting San Giuseppe dei Teatini, we discovered a water source in a courtyard adjacent to the church.  After observing a gardener filling a water can and watering some beautiful flowers in the courtyard, we learned that the water is a source of miracles.  We splashed some of the water on our hands and faces.  It was very refreshing. 

Waterfont:  During our walk, we strolled along the waterfront of the old city and enjoyed the water, a blue sky and a cool seabreeze. 

A portico along the waterfront marking the former site of a city gate

An elevated promenade along Palermo's waterfront

Trees and Flowers:  The timing of our visit to Sicily was very fortunate.  In Palermo and elsewhere, flowering plants and trees were in full bloom.

 

Next Up:  More sights in Palermo,

P.S.  We happened to visit Sicily at the same time as the G7 leaders met there.  Fortunately, we avoided the security and travel nightmare created by a G7 meeting.  The meeting was in the eastern town of Taormina while we were in Palermo in western Sicily.  Not everyone was happy that the G7 were meeting in Sicily.  Below is a poster about a demonstration against the G7 meeting.