DAY 3
After a delicious breakfast of chocolate croissants and very fresh squeezed orange juice on the piazza, C. and I caught a train to the nearby city of Palermo for a little day trip. Our first stop was the Palermo catacombs, a site I was "dying" to see. I can't even begin to explain how fascinating it was. You enter this building, walk down some stone steps, and are inside the catacombs with corpses and mummies just lying out on wooden planks or hanging by wire from the wall. C. and I have decided that it is way creepier looking at pictures of it on the internet than being there in real life but for those who are itching for a look, take a moment and go explore.
Palermo Catacombs
Despite what I would have thought, there was no odor or stench in the catacombs and it was really amazing to see the clothing and other artifacts so perfectly preserved from the different time periods. The most fascinating and heartbreaking is the little 2 year old girl named Rosalia Lombardo who died and was laid to rest in the catacombs in 1920. She is so perfectly embalmed that many people refer to her as "Sleeping Beauty". It was a fascinating place!
Next, we caught a bus and headed up past Palermo to a little town called Monreale, one of the areas that C. served in on his mission. I have to pause and insert an observation here. Italy is not a particularly "clean" place. C. and I joked that basically Italians do things one time and that is it. Preserve an artifact one time, clean a street one time, fix a statue one time...Palermo and Monreale had the potential to be beautiful, charming towns but they were actually quite dirty and run down. Here are these amazing artifacts, landmarks, and relics and they were mostly pretty dirty and unkept. It was a little depressing. BUT...we had delicious pizza on the piazza in Monreale while we waited for the cathedral to open.
This is me standing very piously in front of the cathedral.
And this is me PRETENDING to even think about going down in to the hole in the ground to use a toliet with no toliet seat. I honestly think I would have wet myself right there on the piazza rather than venture underground to relieve myself.
We finally made it inside the cathedral and it was absolutely breathtaking! The entire inside is made of mosaic and gold and the depictions are unreal. I wish I could do it justice but you are simply going to have to take my word for it and if you ever have the chance to see it, go.
On our way back to the train station, we met 2 sister missionaries on the bus! We had previously seen 2 elders at the train station when we arrived that morning. It just seemed so safe and happy that we kept running into missionaries!
On our way back to the train station, we stopped to purchase souvenirs for our children. J. had asked for an Italian dictionary so he could learn Italian and M. had asked for Italian candy, "something different than I eat here". H. didn't realize people were asking for gifts or I'm sure she would have asked for something. So we bought J. a children's Italian/English dictionary book and if I know our son, I'm sure he has been studying it and has it mostly down. We bought M. a Disney music CD in Italian and he now loves to wave his hands wildly around and speak in a deep voice with an Italian accent and then ask, "Mom, is that how they sound in Italy?" H. ended up with a little tamborine that has a scary sun man with lots of legs on it and ribbons hanging off the side. It had to be put in a "special" place after the first day from all the banging.
This is the special Sicilian sun man. I believe it is the universal symbol for Sicily. C. just informed me the scary man might actually be a woman. Somehow that makes it even scarier. And because it was so charming, I bought a pendant to wear on a necklace with this creepy little creature. I just truly hope it isn't the international symbol for the Mafia.
We took the train back to Cefalu and wandered around town watching the beautiful sunset over the water. We ate dinner at a charming, delicious little restaurant outside under the stars. Back to our bed and breakfast where we watched the Simpsons in Italian before falling sound asleep.
Delicious dinner in Cefalu.
The beautiful Cefalu cathedral at night. There was a gelato shop off to the right that had the most scrumtious flavors of gelato...chocolate orange, chocolate cherry...we savored all we could.
On the mountain above Cefalu. Good bye beautiful, scenic, charming town. I hope to see you again soon!
