B&B Baglio alla Zisa

My travelmate 8)

by kedi+

Lo is a good traveller... He's very resourceful and has a good sense of orientation. So that's a bliss havin vacation with him by my side. Even if we had tough times, he never lost his composure and we had an amusing weekend! 8))

Sicily's grim toll

by CliffClaven

The old gods of Sicily occasionally awake from their slumbers to hurl their spite at those who approach too close. In May 1972 an Alitalia DC-8 crashed into a mountain near Palermo's Punta Raisi airport while making a night approach. Six years later it was a DC-9 that went down in the sea just short of the runway. And mystery still surrounds the Itavia DC-9 that disappeared from the radar screens over the island of Ustica while cruising in clear weather towards Palermo in 1980.

Get a bus and see the...

by davidcross

Get a bus and see the cathedral at Monreale.
Absolutely marvellous mosaics (Arab/Norman style) all over ceiling and top walls - and on pillars in cloisters.
Practically impossible to get decent photo of inside - the one here is an expanded section from the cloisters.

19th century Palermo

by TheWanderingCamel

1860 saw Sicily annexed to the newly united Kingdom of Sicily. These were good times for Palermo. The city was appointed the administrative capital of the island and new investments saw economic and industrial expansion. The population grew and a building boom saw expansion beyond the boundaries of the old historical centre, into an area known as Citta Nuova on the north-west side of the city. Art Nouveau was all the rage all over Europe and there was money in Palermo to indulge the taste for new buildings in the latest style. There was money for, and pride in, grand new public buildings and equally grand private homes. More than anywhere in Italy, Palermo took to the new style and developed its own version - known as Liberty style. One new street in the Citta Nuova had so many houses built in the new style, it was (and still is) actually called Via Libertà.

Although not built in Liberty style, the new opera house, the Teatro Massimo, was to become the focal symbol of the city's regeneration. It's grand neo-Classical facade dominates the Piazza Giuseppe Verdi. The biggest opera house in Italy, it opened to great acclaim in 1897, 22 years after it was begun, with a performance of Verdi's Falstaff.
It took even longer to complete the restoration begun in 1974, due largely to corruption and political point-scoring. The doors finally opened again in 1999, just four days short of the centenary.

Most of the money for these new buildings came from the newly-rich middle class. The old aristocracy may have been happy to be seen at the opera but they stuck to their country estates and their palazzos in the old town along with their almost feudal way of life. For a revealing glimpse into the last days of this society, set in the final years of the 19th century, Simonetta Agnello Hornby’s "The Marchesa" makes a great book to take with you as you set off for Sicily.

Port / Harbour area

by Paisleypaul

"A walk over the harbour area"

This is the Jolly Hotel which is quite upmarket, we did not stay here, but the chef was tatught by the proprietor of Il Trullo restaurant in Paisley in Scotland. Review coming to my Paisley pages some decade soon.....!

"La Provinica Il Comune......"

I was somehow amused that this rather austere looking gentleman has a Palermo scarf tied round his knee - for some time by the sun bleached colouring.
A traffic cone on the head is more common these parts.....!

"Organic"

Never saw this used in earnest bu presumably it is a woirking organ!

"Detail of #3"

Detail of #3

"Water front"

These rather garish bollards are lining the waterfront walkway - works were well underway in August 2005

"Garish ?"

Garish loses much of it's meaning once you meet octopus head ...!..

"And..."

Did not get the story with this bandstand or whatever......

"Entrance to Harbour Area"

This grand porta is at the bottom of Corco Vittorio Enmanuele, so all the way down from the Quattro Canti. Lit up beautifully in the middle at night