Royal Chapel Mosaics, 1

My favorite place in Palermo, if not in all of Sicily, is the Chapel of the Royal Palace in Palermo. There the golden 12th century mosaics adorn every square inch of the walls. Same subject matter as Monreale, that is, Biblical stuff, very high quality Byzantine-style, by my lights, but it's all in a chapel, well-lit, clean, and so close you can almost touch it. The analogy of Notre Dame de Paris and Saint-Chapelle comes to mind in thinking of Monreale and the Royal Chapel. We spent a good 90 minutes in the Royal Chapel savoring it all. I posted about the royal chapel in 201l, but it deserves much more, especially so I can savor it all again, via the miracle of the internet, in my impending dotage. I just hope my nursing home has wifi and I have a computer. And a subscription to the internet. Also decent wine. And feather dancers.

Raising of Lazarus; apparently he didn't smell too good

Stinky feet

Peter

Don't know who this guy is, but he's surrounded by feather dancers; heaven?

Suggestive pose of feather dancers

Pantokrator

Betrayal; way before Giotto

Just a bit of a wall

Looking up to the stalactite ceiling (next post)

J with P and P

Knave view, Pantokrator

Notice his digital sign is different from the others; what's he reading?

Personal favorite, still, after many different versions, P and P disputing with
Simon Magi before Nero

St. Senator?

Stalactite ceiling again

Paul

Peter

Simon Magi demonstrating how difficult it is to fly without
wings (or proper thrust); note devil enjoying this

Miscellaneous saints,, demi-gods

Cain bonking Abel

P and P, just really good friends

Building the Tower of Babel; note cement-mixing

Monreale Mosaics,2018

They close the cathedral for a very short Italian lunch, 12-2:30, but we were back inside promptly upon the re-opening. As noted in the previous post, it was a cloudy day. Monreale is a Romanesque church, and thus the prospects for interior viewing were not good. Indeed, of all the churches I know, this is the one that most needs a Divine Illumination Machine (DIM; for a euro, turns on the spotlights; at 2E a pop, could make a fortune at Monreale). My pix from 2011 are better, and certainly more comprehensive. They are at http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/03/monreale.html, and at http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/03/more-monreale.html. Nonetheless...

Facade of the cathedral, looking past the myriad souvenir shoppes

Jesus H. Christ, Pantokrator

Not wearing His usual angry face

King Solomon

Climbing Jacob's ladder

 

Knave view

Building the Tower of Babel

Stocking the Ark

Monreale Cloisters, 2018

Monreale is a large cathedral and monastery complex in the hills above Palermo. The cathedral's mosaics are the most extensive medieval mosaics in the Mediterranean world, done by Byzantine artists to 12th century Norman tastes. The cloister is merely one of the best in Europe, featuring a couple hundred skillfully-carved capitals, no two of which are the same. We visited Monreale in 2011 and were impressed. Further pix of the cloisters and capitals are here. Apologies for duplicates, but, hey, this stuff is that good. And it's been seven years.

Looking to Palermo and the coast from Monreale; alas, the clouds never went
away that Monday, contrary to the forecast

Holy gymnast; or possibly some sort of Kama Sutra thing

Bull bonking

A bit of the cloister

Attracting a large number of onlookers, including us, this man, meticulously
cleaning the capitals

Holy hula dancers

Still processing this one

Ditto

Many of the columns have embedded mosaic designs

Post mortem, it says

King Roger presenting the cathedral to Madonna con Bambino

Knights a-jousting

 

Leopard

Interesting patriarchal double cross

Great place

Sunday Dinner With Vito And Piero; And Dessert From Cappella's

"Restaurants near me" and some high recommendations from a guidebook took us to the Trattoria Ai Cascinari, famous for its old-style Sicilian cuisine. It was here we ascertained for sure that Sicilians also observe Mothers' Day, and on the very same day as in the USA. The restaurant was large and sprawling, half a dozen different rooms, it was mid-afternoon and packed with multi-generation families, but it seemed like the kind of place that merited a half hour's wait to be seated. Under ordinary circumstances, the table we got would have been objectionable--in the entry way, right between Vito's kitchen and Piero's service command center--but 50 yard line seats for a noted restaurant on a busy day, and thus both entertaining and educational. Piero spoke enough English to help us order and understand and make us feel welcomed. Throughout the afternoon, there were hugs and kisses as people left, and more than once Vito was called from the kitchen to be thanked and complimented.

The amuse-bouche--"to welcome you," Vito said--deep fried
patates, some with mint, a couple of pizza puffs; about 1700
calories by my reckoning; each

We split a Palermo pesto pasta...walnuts and pistachios instead of  pine nuts

I had the grilled tuna, of course (Sorry, Charlie); grilled with mint leaves;
wonderful; a revelation

Vicki's Sicilian meat roll, beef, cheese, ham, egg, breaded and
deep-fried; I got to eat most of it; not pictured: the Sicilian
contorni, the wine, the espresso...all of it totaling 40E

We've never gone wrong with a restaurant proud of its history;
and in English, too

For dessert later, we walked to Cappello pasticceria, near the Royal Palace

Cannolli, of course, and Sicilian pistachio cake; a pretty good
food day all told