Local time: May 4, 2014
On this day, we planned to visit Palermo, the largest city in Sicily, plus more. And it was a day troubled by the congestion of the road.
We went to a town called Monreale in the suburbs of Palermo first for about two hours from Marsala where we stayed the night before. There is information that the mosaic painting of the Duomo here is wonderful.
Even so, the road that the Google map navigation system guides is very narrow, and it is hard work. Although it’s not a one-way street, it only guides you to a road that can only accommodate one car. Sometimes there was an oncoming car, and I could barely go on while taking refuge in a parking space of a person’s house…
Finally, we arrived at Monreale and found the parking lot right away, but it was so small…. I couldn’t get in by myself, or rather I was told that if I left my key with the person managing it, he would let me in, and I left it to him as he said.
Even though he seems to be a local guy who runs his business with several people and doesn’t seem to be a bad guy, it’s too scary to leave your car key with valuables (MBP is the worst thing to get stolen) to a third party…
We visited the Duomo of Monreale in a hurry, full of anxiety. The mosaic of the interior was beautiful, but it was Sunday and there were a lot of masses and people, so we could only see the mosaic from the outside of the enclosure.
Then we went through the narrow streets again to Palermo city.
I was prepared for this to some extent, but after all, there are no public parking lots in Italian cities. You have to park on the street. It is almost impossible to park on the street to the area where the sightseeing place is concentrated as much as possible.
Furthermore, the area around the old town of Palermo is honestly in a state of disrepair, and right next to the main street is an area where ordinary people live and are quite insecure in terms of security.
In the end, we wandered around the city for less than an hour and parked on the street in a wide space by the sea.
We decided to have lunch at a restaurant at noon, which was unusual because it was before 1pm and the only sightseeing we had left for the day was in this city.
To be honest, the sightseeing was a disaster, but the food was a hit.
We went to a restaurant near the harbor, and the pasta and grilled fresh fish were delicious. I had a light glass of wine, but it was a bit much for a glass of wine. I stopped at about three sips because I was going to drive a little after four or five hours.
After a delicious meal, we finally went sightseeing in the city, but this day was Sunday, and when we looked at the guidebook, we noticed that the main sightseeing spots including the Norman Royal Palace, which can be said to be the biggest attraction in this city, were all open only in the morning, and we couldn’t do any sightseeing at all! …. Oops, I didn’t do enough research.
The only thing we could do that was like sightseeing was a guided tour of the Teatro Massimo in the Opera House. This was very good.
A good guided tour of a simple but worthwhile store. The guide’s English was good and easy to understand.
The Teatro Massimo is one of the newest opera houses in Europe, which means that it has a modern design and is the second largest after the Garnier in Paris.
After that, I walked lightly in the old town and the new town, and it was already 5 o’clock in the evening when I noticed that I could hardly do sightseeing.
After that, we went to Mondello in the suburbs of Palermo where the hotel is located. The road to here was also very congested, but it would be better than Palermo city.
Checked into the hotel safely. Tonight’s dinner was at a restaurant in this city. It was very nice here too.
Ravioli with oyster cream sauce and grilled calamari (squid). I hadn’t actually taken the time to eat the squid yet. It was grilled to perfection and fresh.
Really Sicilian seafood is delicious.
10:30 p.m. Bedtime.
My journey is still continuing, but my wife’s journey ends here. From tomorrow, I’ll be traveling alone.
（続く）
