I woke up Monday morning at 5:14 am to the ship cruising along the island of Sicily to port in Palermo. What a beautiful sight to see first thing in the morning! It seemed incredible to believe that we are living a vacation that began as an idea, then became a plan. Now it is our life for eleven days.
We took the "Mysterious Palermo" tour which featured a visit to the famous catacombs where monks and other people have been mummified and hung on walls. First, we drove through
Palermo to see a roofless church in which a couple of trees are growing and which is now used as an open air theater. We had a gelato (ice cream) stop. Then we visited a Norman summer home for Roger I or II, which was built by the Arabs the Normans had conquered; it had a natural air conditioning system - the breeze would pass over a pool in the front, then blow into the front room of the building and into side towers that directed the air flow to the upper floors. We were shown (and felt) the difference in rooms where the windows remained open as they were built and a room where the window was fitted with glass; there was a clear temperature difference. We also learned that the Arabs, Normans, Jewish people and another culture (I can't remember which it was) lived together in Palermo 800 years ago with each group keeping their own culture and language. I hope this means potential for our world today to someday also be able to live in harmony as the Palermo people did. Our driver Filippo was amazing at negotiating narrow streets and heavy traffic. We saw all this in four hours! At the catacombs, we made our first European purchases and they were for lil Z, of course: a leather belt with a large silver star or starfish buck
le for 7 euros/approx $10 US and a pair of sunglasses for 5 euros/approx $8 US
Monday afternoon after our room service lunch, lil Z went to lay out on Deck 9 in view of the huge screen in front of *one* of the pools. Later, Zman and lil Z worked out as lil Z had been wanting to do for the last two days. Lil Z was wiped out and was too tired to go to dinner at Animator's Palette; we brought food back (her favorite - salmon) but she didn't stir. Loved Animator's Palette, I knew it would be our favorite. There are pictures of Disney characters on the walls that look like line drawings; as dinner progresses, the pictures become colorized. The wait staff have white vests that match the character pictures on the walls; after dinner and before dessert is served, the wait staff all disappear and return a few minutes later in brightly colored vests in a promenade led by Mickey Mouse in his Fantasia cape and hat.
We took the "Mysterious Palermo" tour which featured a visit to the famous catacombs where monks and other people have been mummified and hung on walls. First, we drove through
Palermo to see a roofless church in which a couple of trees are growing and which is now used as an open air theater. We had a gelato (ice cream) stop. Then we visited a Norman summer home for Roger I or II, which was built by the Arabs the Normans had conquered; it had a natural air conditioning system - the breeze would pass over a pool in the front, then blow into the front room of the building and into side towers that directed the air flow to the upper floors. We were shown (and felt) the difference in rooms where the windows remained open as they were built and a room where the window was fitted with glass; there was a clear temperature difference. We also learned that the Arabs, Normans, Jewish people and another culture (I can't remember which it was) lived together in Palermo 800 years ago with each group keeping their own culture and language. I hope this means potential for our world today to someday also be able to live in harmony as the Palermo people did. Our driver Filippo was amazing at negotiating narrow streets and heavy traffic. We saw all this in four hours! At the catacombs, we made our first European purchases and they were for lil Z, of course: a leather belt with a large silver star or starfish buck
le for 7 euros/approx $10 US and a pair of sunglasses for 5 euros/approx $8 USMonday afternoon after our room service lunch, lil Z went to lay out on Deck 9 in view of the huge screen in front of *one* of the pools. Later, Zman and lil Z worked out as lil Z had been wanting to do for the last two days. Lil Z was wiped out and was too tired to go to dinner at Animator's Palette; we brought food back (her favorite - salmon) but she didn't stir. Loved Animator's Palette, I knew it would be our favorite. There are pictures of Disney characters on the walls that look like line drawings; as dinner progresses, the pictures become colorized. The wait staff have white vests that match the character pictures on the walls; after dinner and before dessert is served, the wait staff all disappear and return a few minutes later in brightly colored vests in a promenade led by Mickey Mouse in his Fantasia cape and hat.
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