Palermo

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Palermo, the capital of Sicily, the biggest city in the island. Sadly Palermo is well known aborad and in other parts of Italy for different reasons from the ones that I am going to talk about. Mostly Mafia, Crime, and all these things. Well, I have to admit that we did not feel 100% safe walking around the city, but apart from that (you need only to keep your eyes open and avoid doing stupid things, like walking with your camera and expensive jewellery in the poor areas) the city is nice. Compared to the other cities that we saw Palermo was more chaotic, but it packs a lot of things to see, that in one day are almost impossible to be covered. We skipped some of them for the usual "lunch break closure", but we managed to see what we wanted. La Martorana is a must see, great church totally beautiful. Same applies for the Dome of Monreale, a little quarter up-hill. It's a shame that we had only one day to spend in Palermo, but for this trip it was the longest time spell dedicated to just one place. In the evening we managed to meet some Chiara's friends and we went to this small village for some lovely fish overlooking the harbour.

10:55:39 Teatro Massimo (roma theatre).	10:56:35 This is a newsagent stand.	10:58:17 Entrance of the Teatro Massimo.	11:13:50 This is Piazza dei Canti, every side of the square (piazza) has an arrangement such as the one in the shot.
11:14:47 Lovely fountain and church on the background. The fountain was made in Florence and then sent to Palermo later.	11:18:04 A detail of the fountain. Note the palace in the background that is completely ruined...	11:21:20 Inside the city hall.	11:25:59 A view of Martorana (left had side) and the templar knight church on the right.
11:29:24 A view of the fountain from above.	11:34:45 This is the place where the city council of Palermo meets every day.	11:37:36 Chiara standing to a very nice entrance/exit of the city hall.	11:43:47 I wasn't supposed to take the next two shots, as inside this church there was the prohibition of taking pictures... I still do not understand why, but in any case before being told off I managed to sneak some shots...
11:44:55 Altar, this baroque church was really impressive.	11:50:21 Martorana tower from below.	11:52:49 La Martorana is completely covered in beautiful mosaics. IMPRESSIVE.	11:54:30 More Mosaic action.
12:03:05 This is the interior of the templar knights church (don't remember the name). Very spartan.	12:03:34 Incense burner.	12:04:59 The three little pink domes seen from the inside (well two of them here)...	12:16:15 Lovely little private court.
12:19:34 The Cathedral in Palermo is GRAND.	12:20:07 Very impressive baroque, almost north african art.	12:20:15 Belltower, very gothic.	12:21:51 More details.
12:25:10 Inside the church we cold see a lot of great sculptures and paintings, this holy water dish was simply great.	12:38:41 Norman Palace.	12:39:14 A statue... dunno who he is...	12:41:46 The dome of the Cathedral senn from distance.
12:44:44 Porta Nuova.	13:53:42 Another nice square near the harbour.	13:55:27 What a lovely door!	14:07:15 Piazza Garibaldi had these two houses painted in a very fashionable way!
14:32:25 Ahhhhh colour contrast!	14:40:45 Here we are at a museum where unfortunately the main piece was missing...	14:45:45 This painting is called "DEATH"... apparently a type of painting that was quite popular in the middle ages...	14:47:13 Me being generally rude!
14:55:25 More museums action.	15:21:54 A nice house in a street in Palermo.	16:19:39 The little truck was so loaded that this guy really struggled on the slope to reach Monreale.	16:50:07 Monerale Cathedral, a marvellous church near Palermo.
16:51:39 Front side.	16:58:50 Inside the Cathedral, honestly the view is breathtaking.	17:01:16 More pics.	17:04:29 Some details at the mosaics.
17:07:14 More interior details.	17:16:41 And the typical shot from the very rear of the church.	17:25:48 Inside the inner court we got to this place, every set of columns is different in size and colours!	17:27:21 Fountain of youth (but works only on pigeons and women apparently, clearly there is a similitude in these two beings)...
17:28:02 Columns.	17:28:54 A side shot at the lodge plus church.	17:46:46 Palermo from above.