Homey Dilapidation

Sicilians are the kindest people I've met, but not in a soft & mushy way. They talk loudly & fast, like Italians in general. Every conversation is a drama that involves the whole body...waving arms, touching each other, kissing friends & family lavishly. When I ask for directions, they even walk with me a little way, to show me the right way (or, I should say, the direction they believe to be right, for you can ask six people how to get to xyz & you will get at six opposite answers. But they will be passionate answers, which makes you gladly follow all of them.)

Palermo is run down, but it's an easy, joyful dilapidation, as if people throughout the ages have simply been too busy eating & loving & fighting & playing cards & eating some more & strolling in loud, laughing, disagreeing packs to bother about upkeep.

                           This is the narrow street my apartment is on

                              Almost every building has balconies

                             Clotheslines are shared from apartment to apartment

                                  Markets sprout on every corner

                    The requisite statuary seems softer than that in many other cities 

                                           More natural

 With a good sense of humor. The fountain in this churchyard is ringed with fantastic marble animal heads spitting water in all directions.

 These funny fellows show the Arabian influence that makes this a much more historically multicultural place than most of Italy.

          In this shop, you can buy a life-size Jesus of your very own. Or Mother Teresa.

This serious building is a very well-guarded military center, yet it has this huge, weird Turkish ship in front, which you can climb on.

                       This dazzling Moorish chapel had everyone gaping

                            I have not seen anything like this in my travels

      This is why Sicily is considered the gateway between Europe & Africa

                                  A beautiful melding of influences 

When siesta time rolls around & the whole country shuts down for 3 hours in the afternoon, there are no exceptions. You can't find a bank, a restaurant, a museum, or a shop that's open. There's even a guy sleeping inside his bulldozer!

Palermo has many parks with weird & wondrous trees

    When you climb inside this ancient stand of trees, it's like giants are embracing each other

All the fashionable folks walk this promenade along the port. Just not at siesta time.

                There's barely a living soul to be seen between noon & 3 pm.

 Dawn from my bed in the sleeping loft in my top-floor apartment. Alas, the roof over my head is a popular spot for mating cats. Many mating cats. An orgy of mating cats.