On Saturday I wanted to go down to Palermo, Sicily. I have a train pass that allows me to get discounted tickets on trains, so I went up to Rome to buy a train ticket for the night train. When I got there, the train that I wanted was sold out. Not going wasn't an option, so I changed my plans and decided to head down there on Sunday. And so the loooong journey for a short visit began.
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| Sunrise view |
Sunday night, I hopped on the night train from Rome to Palermo, with a few stops in between. I didn't have a bed cabin, just a cabin with seats, so it wasn't too comfortable. (Not to self: ALWAYS get a sleeper car when travel over night.) At Naples, three more Americans got on and sat in the same cabin as me, so I had someone to talk to. The girls were 19 and they were with one of their mom's, and they have been coming to Palermo for a while because the husband (and father) is actually Sicilian and still has family there, so they come to visit almost every year. It was very nice to meet them and sit with them on the train because they gave me a lot of advice about Palermo!
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| The trains on the boat |
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| Sun starting to rise while on the boat |
After a while of uncomfortable sitting, I finally fell asleep. I later woke up to our train going forward and backward several times, and I wasn't able to see a lot out of the window so I drifted back to sleep. I was unusually comfortable with the train changing directions as many times as it did. When I woke up, our train was being put into a ferry, and we were going across to Messina. Yes, thats right, a train on a boat! I didn't know that trains could go on boats, but it is really cool. They detach each train car and put them into the bottom of the boat, once they are done, you are allowed to get out of your car and go up to the deck of the boat and walk around. When we get there, you have to get back in your car, they reassemble the train and you head on your way. The boat ride over to Messina was beautiful, it was at about 6:30am, the sun was rising, and it was amazing to watch.
Once we got to Messina, it was about 7am, and we waited there at the train station for some time, picked up some more passengers, then headed on our way to Palermo. We got to Palermo at 10:40am.
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| View of the sunrise from the boat |
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| Inside of the Church of Jesus |
Once we got there, I stopped by a tourist information desk, grabbed a map of the city, and headed on my to start checking sites of my list. Most of the main sights are all located in the same area of each other, in the old city center. I pretty much had to walk down 2 streets to get to most of the main things. First I visited to Cathedral, it is a very big church that sits in the middle of the city. There are tons of more modern buildings and shops around it, it doesn't look like it belongs. Then after that, I headed over to the Church of Jesus, which is known for it's incredible architecture on the inside. It was kind of difficult to find, because it is back off the main street, and in the middle of houses and buildings. The inside of the church is amazing, and like they say, the architecture is absolutely wonderful, and every wall and column of the church is covered with these carvings!
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| The coast |
After that, the other places that I wanted to go to were closed until later that day, the daily four hour lunch siesta. So, while waiting for the sites to open, I walked to the coast, and sat on a bench right on the sea and just soaked up the sun and people watched!
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| Me in one of the many gardens |
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| Me sitting on the coast |
After about an hour sitting there, I walked through a couple gardens, then headed to the Capuchin Catacombs. It is a little bizarre, and I'm glad I read about it before going; but nothing really prepares you for what you see. It is literally a bunch of bodies preserved throughout the years, organized by class, hanging or laying on the walls. Some are preserved a little better then others. Then, there is this one, they call it La Bambina (the baby girl), she died about 100 years ago, and she is the most real looking, perfectly preserved body in there. I guess the doctor who discovered the embalming method to do this, died before he could write it down or tell anybody and they haven't been able to figure it out to this day. They don't allow you to take pictures, which is understandable, so I don't have any pictures of this, but I'm sure you can google it and find several.
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| The walls were covered with amazing carvings |
Palermo is a big, busy city, but it is amazing how many churches this city has. I didn't even see that much of the city, but it seems like almost every other building while walking down the street is a church! It is really cool to see that they are mixed in with the other buildings of the city, you could easily mistake them for another government building, or another apartment building, while passing by.
After that I really had nothing else to do, I sat in the square of the Cathedral for a little then headed to the train station to head back on another night train. This time, I had a cabin with a bed! Besides sharing a cabin with 3 other women, who keep in mind I can't really communicate with, tt is actually not as bad as you would imagine, and I got a pretty good nights sleep.
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| Quatro Canti- Famous cross streets |
Italian word/phrase of the day: come no? "why not" happens to be one of my least favorite, over used, phrases to hear, but at the same time I enjoy using it...
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The Cathedral
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| Me infront of the Cathedral |
