Monday 8th May

Our trip to Palermo should have been an easy one. An hour on the motorway plus a quick stop at LIDL. However a combination of bad directions from SatNav and poor driving from me complicated matters. In trying to find our overnight stop SatNav missed the turning resulting in me, yet again, navigating narrow streets with the usual double parking. At one point a bus coming towards me stopped at a slight widening in the road and as I turned into that broader section I heard a dreaded noise of Basil scraping against something. I turned out be a car bumper and although the car was not damaged various small plastic pieces on Basil’s side were broken and there was a scuff mark along about a third of his side.

We finally found Green Parking (38.1099, 13.3424 €25 for 24 hours. It is little more that a car park, but it has emptying and filling facilities, wifi, toilets and showers.

The streets around our parking place are the worst we’ve seen this trip for uncollected mess. Everyone in Italy seems to love dogs, if their reaction to Skye is anything to go by, but they cannot be bothered to pick up after their dogs!

On the first afternoon we walked in to the Arab/Norman Palace, primarily to see the Palantine chapel which contains magnificent mosaics. Our guidebook said we could just pay to see the chapel, but they have changed the rules and it is now necessary to purchase a €19 to see the palace and chapel. We refused.

We then moved on to the Cathedral. The exterior of which is probably the most extraordinary I have seen. Built by the Normans, but clearly with strong Arabic influence, it an amazing combination of various architectural styles.

Sarah could see people on the roof and was keen to do the same, which she did and thoroughly enjoyed. The interior of the Cathedral is unfortunately as gloomy as the exterior is exuberant. The Arabic influence is even clearer by the engraving of an Islamic text on one of the columns at the entrance to the Cathedral.

We finished the day with visiting the Porta Nuova which is an extravagant “new” gate to the city, which since it was built in 1570, is miss named!