I had a fantastic time in Palermo this weekend, but my week preceding it was just as wonderful. Tuesday, Sean gave us a special private tour of the Vatican, a once-in-a-lifetime experience! We got to go behind the scenes to the areas where only employees of the Vatican are allowed. We also got a little insight into the life of the Pope and all those around him. The most powerful man in the world lives in an area of only 100 acres and dwells in a hotel among other every day workers. He is most possibly the most humble Pope the world has known. The obelisk that now stands in St. Peter's square was actually once located closer to St. Peter's and had to be moved. It is said that the obelisk was so big and difficult to move, that the Pope decreed it a crime to utter a single word while the task was being completed. As the obelisk was being raised into its current position, the ropes began to break from all the strain. One man was brave enough to break the silence and order everyone to throw water on the ropes to keep them from breaking. Normally, he would have lost is head for disobeying the decree. Since he saved the day, his family is still the sole provider of Palm fronds on Palm Sunday.
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| St. Peter's from behind |
This is the hotel that the Pope lives in. He was offered his own private villa in the countryside, but he said that he liked people too much and would get lonely in such a place, so he lives here. Every day, he goes down to breakfast with everyone else and converses with them as equals.
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| The home of the Pope! |
There are 100 fountains in Vatican City because they represent Jesus, life, and rebirth.
Dirty St. Peter's is much darker than this, tarnished by all the pollution of the city. The building is so big, that by the time they finish cleaning the entire thing, it's time to start cleaning the part they started with again. Each column represents 3 or four generations of construction workers.
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| The Papal crest |
The railways lines serve Vatican city alone. The building next to the tracks is said to be some sort of station, but it is actually a secret grocery store/mall for Vatican employees. We snuck in and got to see it for 20 seconds before the guards kicked us out!
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| Private railway lines that bring goods to Vatican City |
Next, we visited the very first radio station in the entire world. During the time when the Pope was literally a prisoner in Vatican City, he ordered Marconi to come to he city and help him erect a means of communicating his messages to the public--thus, the first radio station was born.
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| Electra |
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| The first clock to show different time zones all over the world |
Marconi was smart enough to create the Radio, but no one knew exactly how radio waves worked, or how far their messages would stretch. The first radio message ever made was to "To all created things" just in case there were aliens listening in.
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| The first radio headset |
On top of creating the first radio, Marconi also developed the first telegraph, which was used on some large ships, including the Titanic. This machine is credited with saving the only survivors of the Titanic, because as the ship was going down, they were able to send an SOS message. The ship that picked up the message was the one who picked up the survivors, keeping them all from freezing to death in the Arctic waters. Marconi was deemed a hero and the machine was put into all subsequent ships.
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| Telegraph |
This garden represents the universe. Each of the balls are meant to be planets orbiting around the fountains in the middle. The fountains represent Jesus. Therefore, the message is that the universe revolves around Jesus Christ.
Only very important private broadcasts from the Pope are made in this room. It is off-limits to everyone except those of high rank--thank you, Sean!
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| Private Broadcast room |
Nearby is one of the best recording rooms in the world. The acoustics are deemed nearly perfect because the sound is still allowed to echo slightly. In the room sits one of the best pianos in the world, the Boesendoerfer. Sean said that it is far better than a Steinway and incredibly expensive. We were allowed to play it! I wished I had something better memorized to play, but as it was, I just played a song that I made up.
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| Boesendoerfer! |
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| Altar where Pope Benedict comes every day to pray |
We ended our journey back in St. Peter's, but we got to go through the VIP door, which was pretty cool. Our final stop was a large sculpture done by Bernini reminding us of how quickly our lives pass us by and that no matter how powerful or rich one is, death is coming for us all. What a happy note to end on, right?
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| Secret, VIP entrance |
Wednesday morning, we had our final cooking class for Sustainable Foods! This one was special because although it wasn't Good Friday yet, the food we made was done in the spirit of Good Friday, which means no meat or dairy. For appetizers, we had Baccala di Fritti or battered and fried Cod with fried sage leaves. For our main course, we had pasta with clams, and for dessert, we had a sweet fruit tart with apples, raisins, anise, and corn flour, which comes from the region of Umbria. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the pasta before I ate it, but it was beautiful and delicious.
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| The tart before it's baked |
It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so we got to set up the table outside on Sergio's porch with his wonderful herbs, flours, and fruit trees. I could live here!
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| The beautiful porch |
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| Tired from all the cooking |
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| The completed tarts! |
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| Baccala with sage and lemon |
Early Friday morning, we left for Palermo! The flight was very quick and smooth, and the apartment owner, Michelangelo, met us at the airport to drive us into the city. It is beautiful there, surrounded by mountains and the sea. Many call it the California of Italy, the place Italians go to for vacation because they can enjoy the sun, the beach, the view, and the fantastic food that they are known for. Michelangelo was super helpful, showing us all the best places to go in town and giving us suggestions on things to see. We wanted to hit everything he mentioned, but there was a lot. We arrived near midday, so before beginning our explorations, we stopped by the pastry shop across the street to try food items #1 and #2. #1: This spiral pastry that tasted like a donut and was filled with ricotta cream:
And food item #2: Arancini. Arancini are large fried balls filled with meat ragout, vegetables, and rice. They were fresh out of the fryers, so they were deliciously hot and crispy--very greasy, but delicious.
We headed down towards the port to see the water, but along the way we got side-tracked. First, we saw a beautiful church. Then, we passed the museum renovated by Carlos Scarpa (one of my new favorite architects), then we stumbled upon the beautiful gardens of Villa Giulia and the Botanical Gardens right next door. Bellissimo! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the temperature was perfect, and I was surrounded by what looked like a tropical island. I felt like I had just walked into paradise.
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| Villa Giulia |
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| Interesting statue garden |
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| Yes, I climbed another orange tree, and no, they weren't much better than the first time... |
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| Name of the interesting trees with spectacular roots systems |
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| Turtles! |
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| Bamboo forests |
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| Extremely tall tree |
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| The perfect climbing tree with branches that looked like fingers |
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| Iris Florentina |
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| Agave plant |
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| Interesting blue and orange seeds (no label) |
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| Paeonia Arborea |
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| Bougainvillea glabra |
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| Mammillaria bombycina |
After the gardens, we finally made it to the port to enjoy the water. We couldn't actually reach the water because the beach is only accessible by bus, but it was still beautiful. Then we headed back towards our apartment for lunch. Along the way, we passed one of the biggest and oldest trees in the world! It's far too big to fit in one picture, but it was magnificent!
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| Giant Tree |
We had lunch at a nice place recommended to us by both Michelangelo and Sergio. They were just about to close as we arrived, but they let us in anyways. We got a cheese plate for appetizer, which was amazing. They didn't say what the cheeses were, but I'm pretty sure is was Parmiggiano Rigiano, Pecorino, and maybe Provolone. For main course, I tried the swordfish. Yum!
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| Restaurant for Lunch |
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| Cheese Plate |
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| Swordfish |
After lunch, we were hoping to make a concert at the famous Teatro Massimo where "The Godfather III" was filmed, but we ran into a Pasqua (Easter) parade on the way, and couldn't leave. There were lots of people there, but they were all locals. We were very happy to be in the midst of hardly any tourists. A band was playing and marching down the street in front of a large church near one of the main streets. Eventually, they carried a model of Jesus crucified on the cross out of the church on a stretcher and carried it down the street and around the corner to another church. We waited for a while, the music started up again, and suddenly out came the statue again, but this time it was covered with a shroud. The covered statue was then carried back to the original church where it remained for quite a while. When it reemerged, it was in a large, beautifully decorated coffin that required forty men just to lift. Behind Jesus came a float with a statue of Mary mounted upon it adorned in flowers. Again, forty men were required just to lift it. The procession then made its way down the street accompanied by the musicians (one band in front, and one in back) and a large group of people. We didn't watch the entire thing because the people carrying the statues needed to rest every two minutes, and they weren't getting very far very fast.
Our march with the procession led us to a few new wonders, including a beautiful fountain and a large church. Many of the domes in Palermo are beautifully adorned in colorful mosaics due to Arabic influences like this one:
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| Fountain |
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| Interior of the church is quite small but very intimate and beautiful with much ornamentation |
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| Another beautiful church we passed on the street |
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| The Cathedral |
By the time we made it to Teatro Massimo, it was closed, but we wandered around the area for a little while and happened upon an Aperitivo bar that was a good price.
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| Aperitivo feast! |
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| Teatro Massimo |
Saturday, we woke up at a reasonable time, got ourselves pastries from the bakery across the street, and headed to the beach. This pastry was amazing, by the way. It was a bun with a little round ball on top, and it was filled with sweet ricotta and chocolate. It is one of the best pastries I have ever had! The bus stop for the beach just happened to be nearby to Teatro Massimo and one of the bakeries Sergio had suggested, so we decided to take a few side stops. First, we went to the Chiesa del Gesu, or Church of Jesus. I loved it, but not for the typical reasons. This one had been bombed during WWII, so the ceiling and some of the walls had to be remade and repainted to blend with the baroque images that still exist. They did a wonderful job. The new 20th century paintings were almost my favorite part of the church, and they fit so well with everything else. The pastel colors definitely stood out, but in my opinion, they were a good choice. We could have paid to see the rest of the church, but we had a lot to see yet, so we decided not to (sort of wish we had though).
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| Our Apartment Balcony |
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| Pastry filled with chocolate and ricotta cream (heavenly) |
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| Octopi at Ballaro Market! |
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| Chiesa del Gesu |
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| Modern painting in a medieval church |
Next, we stopped by the Cathedral of Palermo, which was huge and magnificent as is to be expected, but not very well maintained. There were water stains everywhere, and the walls were white and bare except for in the apse of the church, which is either for restoration purposes, or simply because they decided not to make the Cathedral very elaborate. The architecture is definitely the star of this building.
Finally, we made it to the RoyalPpalace at the end of the road. Again, we probably would have gone in for the tour, but the line was extremely long and the price was a bit high. We simply walked around the exterior and then headed to Teatro Massimo for a tour.
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| Cathedral |
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| Cathedral Interior |
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| Royal Palace |
The tour was quite brief, but we got a chance to see all the interior rooms of the theater, the auditorium, the royal box, and a special domed room where if you stand in the middle and talk, your voice is amplified as though you're using a microphone.
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| Teatro Massimo |
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| The Echo Room |
After the tour, we got kebabs for lunch. Kebabs are actually very popular in the Palermo city center because of the Arabic influences that have remained since the time that Sicily was under Arabic rule. The kebab was very good, although I still prefer Greek gyros.
Then, despite the fact that we were full, we stopped at a very famous gelateria called Broscia for some of the best gelato of my life. I got Hazelnut, Pistachio, and Chocolate. The hazelnut is the certified version protected by the Italian government so that it can't be falsely copied elsewhere in the world. The pistachio and chocolate were a special Sicilian variation that was full of pistachio and cocoa bean chunks! Delicious! I didn't do it because I am slow at eating gelato, but there was also the option to get gelato on a brioche bun!
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| Famous Bakery |
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| Flaky almond pastry |
It was a bit later than we had originally planned, but we eventually made it to Palermo's beach, Mondello Beach. We didn't actually go in the water, but the view was stunning, and the sand was fine and soft. Some of us read and some of us napped, and we all had a very relaxing and enjoyable late afternoon at the beach in Palermo. I read
The Italian, a gothic novel by Ann Radcliff, who also wrote
The Mysteries of Udolpho. Not only was it a great story, but it was extremely relevant to my time in Italy. I had already visited most of the places mentioned in the story! We agreed to head back to the city center before grabbing dinner because we were all still a bit full from our large lunch, but we stopped into a few charming stores while we were waiting. About an hour later, the bus still hadn't come, even though it was supposed to come every half an hour...hmph! By that time, I was getting hungry, so we stopped at a little café near the bus stop and tried a sandwich with spleen--well, Kristin and I tried it. Jenna and Nicole just watched. It was actually pretty good. The consistency was much like liver, and the taste was a bit like roast beef.
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| The Port |
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| The beach |
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| Spleen sandwich! |
When we finally made it back to Palermo center, I was starving, so we stopped into one of the first restaurants we saw that looked good, and boy did we hit a winner! It was a new and very modern restaurant. We were supposed to have reservations, but they were nice and let us in anyways. The name of it is "Vino e Pomodoro," and it is exactly my favorite type of restaurant: good quality delicious food with a focus on sustainability. Ingredients were local, fresh, and organic. I went out on a limb and tried frog legs for the first time. They were very good, served with a delicious squash puree. The pizzas that Kristin and Jenna got were also fantastic! After returning home, we decided to check out the night life in the area, but were quite unpopular because everyone already seems to know one another, and aren't so willing to let us into their world. We talked with a few nice guys for a while, but ultimately went home early so we could start the day early on Sunday!
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| Interesting wall decorations |
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| Frog Legs with sprouts and squash puree |
Sunday, we did not have a large Easter feast, nor did we go to church. No, we went paragliding! (in tandem). Parapendino in Tandem is an awesome agency that had amazing reviews on TripAdvisor and were reasonably priced, and I didn't want to pass up this probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we did it! The wind was being fickle, so we nearly weren't able to go. The guys took us to breakfast at a little café. Then we waited on the beach all morning, praying that the wind would die down enough for us to safely fly. We were happy that they were taking so much precaution before taking us out, but we were also very anxious to just do it! Kristin had a flight at 6, so we needed to leave by 3:30 at the latest to make it to the airport in time--the ride to the mountain where we were launching was an hour-and-a-half. When we finally got the okay to go, Kristin and Nicole got to go first. They had an amazing time--almost too amazing. Unfortunately, by the time they came down, we were running out of time, and the wind was dying down, so it was difficult for Jenna and I to launch. Eventually, we made it into the air, and the experience was unforgettable. It felt like I was flying! Vincenzo, the one who went with me, even did some tricks at the end that made it feel like we were falling, but with the wind so low, we couldn't get up very high, and it was difficult to do as many tricks. Jenna and I didn't get to go nearly as long as the others, but that's mother nature for you--you can never predict what she's going to do. It was still a fantastic experience, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
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| The beach where we waited for mother nature to make up her mind |
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| Getting suited up! |
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| I'm flying! |
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| Vincenzo! |
