The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Palermo Interlude

Some less weighty subjects from our days in Palermo...

Interior of the McDonald's at the central station; they sell

pizza, and, of course, there's a bar

McDonald's is very Italian (and Romanian,

and Turkish and Greek)

Birds on a building near the Piazza Bologni, where we had

a nice lunch

At a place call Prima Vera

Sicilians, like other Italians, don't like their

prime minister...

Palermo, from Monreale

At Monreale, padlocks, tokens of commitment, something

we have not seen since Wulingyuan in China

The Bay at Sferrocavallo, where we camped 4 nights

At Camping degli Ulivi

Thus

Benedictine Cloister at Monreale, 2011

The cloisters were not particularly attractive, except for the hundred or so sculptured column capitals ranged around. They were another delight, in a completely different medium, especially knowing so little such work has survived elsewhere.

The cloisters

Typical

In the corners, the columns also were carved

Possibly not a Biblical subject; nearly like some of the

secular Norman carving we saw near Hereford (well, of course)

Dragon

Adoration

Slaughter

Caption needed...

More weirdness

Jousting

In days of old, when knights were bold...

More Monreale, 2011

Just a few of the Old Testament scenes. All of them are narrated, in Latin, so I will offer my own rough translation.

Creation of Eve from Adam

Now I've given you this really nice garden to live in; DON'T

SCREW UP!

Cute snake!

Adam, come look at the cute snake

So what's with the fig leaves?!

And don't ya come back no more, no more, no

more, no more...

Life is hard, especially without modern fabrics

And then there are the kids...always rough-housing

And so on; the Normans appeared very interested in the

Rebecca story, with several panels, but, sorry, nothing about

Rachel; we looked hard...

Monreale, 2011

The most impressive sight in Palermo is a few miles, and a long bus ride, out of town, the church and abbey cloister of Monreale, created by Roger II in the 12th century. It is Norman in architecture but the interior is the largest and most extravagant (and intact) set of mosaics we have seen. Nothing remaining from the Byzantine world compares, at least in scope and size. The church--which is cathedral-sized--is poorly lit, so the pix do little justice to the mosaics. Most of them are 40-50-60 feet up in the air, on the walls, and are more than life-sized. But they are a delight. Gold and gold-leaf are everywhere.

I was so impressed with the interior, I forgot

to do any decent shots of the exterior; here

are the towers at the bow of the church

And the old bronze west door

Interior

Closer-up; Jesus H. Christ, Pantocrator

Ditto

The major scenes depict episodes, stories

from the Old Testament, life of Jesus, and

lives of saints, in three ever-higher bands all

around the the building; here's Jesus (halo)

healing the leopards (spots)

And dropsy

And the money-changers

Crucifiction of St. Peter

To be continued. I know, I know, I am going to burn in hell,

forever and ever. Amen.

Palermo

We spent three days in Palermo, two of them touring, and another in rest and maintenance (read: doing the wash). Palermo is Sicily's capital, a dense old city of 700,000, in which driving and parking range from difficult to impossible. We stayed at a campground in Sferrocavallo, on the bay, about 15 km from the city center and took buses into town. Even the bus trips were a bit of a challenge. My pedometer got a good work-out in Palermo.