On the way to Palermo, where I would travel from the airport into town to meet Meredith, I listened to a woman who works on imprinted genes expressed in placenta in low birth weight studies in Africa. She works with a specific population which traditionally uses menstrual huts...essentially huts where women go when they're on their period. I heard about taboos on menstruation, war in Mali, changing society driven by an increasing availability of pure alcohol and migration to the cities, what caused women to participate in the program (the women of the tribe had high interest in the program and made remarkable efforts to sustain their participation in it), and their research group's pressing need for a post-doc. It was very interesting, and also a lot to process at 5:30am.
A thunderstorm was visible over the water as we were driving in–it was very dramatic. You could see the clouds frequently light up with every flash of lighting.
I caught a bus to Palermo central station and eventually met up with Meredith, who was joining me from California on the enormous generosity of my mom. While I was waiting, I ran into our lab's post-doc on her way to another Sicilian vacation.
I had a chance to check out the hostel Mer had been staying in for the past few days. It was very nice. There was a lot of art and art supplies around. Corded telephones were fixed to the wall as art.
We ate some pizza and chatted on the lounge area on the roof–I had very little energy. The lounge on the roof was a sky island in the middle of rooftops. Italy and Sicily in particular seem to be characterized by busy and bare streets (with ornate balconies, shuttered windows, three story buildings, and dilapidated grandeur). The inner courtyards, however, seem to be where residents have space to expand. They are often much prettier, have potted plants growing, and seem more secluded than one would expect in a city. On this roof, we could hear a large crowd cheering something on–likely football (soccer), and we saw balconies offset at many levels, with plants or washing hanging out over them. The building next to us looked gutted–due to restoration work or deterioration, I couldn't tell. There are a lot of collapsing buildings around. They have the look of once being grand and expensive, but now have rusted and rotted and been gutted and stripped to their bones. Some remnants of ornament and facade remain, but no one has bothered to take these remnants down, or to replace them with new, modern buildings.
Mer and I are both reminded of Assassins Apprentice here–everything is grand and climbable; ornate and varied landscapes for dramatic chases. There's an element of romantic deterioration about the city.
Just as we were about to head out to our next airbnb spot, a freak thunderstorm blasted through the streets, dumping an incredible amount of water down and seeming to blow people out of the street with forceful wind, rain, and hail. We stayed inside and ate cannoli with a German girl with whom Mer had become friends.
We eventually escaped and made our way to the next airbnb place. Like the hostel, this place had huge, grand doors with a much smaller door cut into them, to allow pedestrians through. You had to duck and step over a ledge to enter. These doors are adorable. Inside them, the building seems huge and dark, like an abandoned train station.
According to our very nice hosts, the building was once the home of nobility, then a nunnery, and now apartments. Our room had a painted ceiling and floor tiles from the 19th century.
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| Meredith on the balcony |
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| Our room with an original ceiling |
When we were ready to explore, we made our way through a fruit market and some really sketchy back streets on our way to the Palazzo Reale, which houses the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily– The Palatine Chapel. The chapel is dedicated to St Peter and is well known for its Byzantine architecture and mosaics. Also for being completely covered in gold leaf. COVERED.
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| ...And the other |
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| One face of Palermo |
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| Interior of the Palazzo Reale containing the Cappella Palatina (the Palantine chapel) |
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| If this carriage is rolling down the street, you just *know* somebody important is in it. |
"Why is 'God' wearing clothing in this painting of the creation of the universe when Adam and Eve only dress after becoming ashamed of their sin & nakedness? Is this depiction implying 'God' has some personal baggage going into the creation of our universe? I mean, it would explain his self-aggrandizing demands for worship."
"Why are many of these scenes composed of people doing normal things and Paul being weird?"
Cases in point:
- Paul getting poked with sticks
- Paul with the laser-targeted dove of the holy spirit
- Paul in a basket, getting hauled up a castle
Meanwhile, Peter appears to have his shit together.
The rafters of the church were completely covered in very small illustrations–they were hard to see far away in the dim light, but we would have loved to take a closer look. Gold leaf was used everywhere– they were very liberal with the shiny stuff. A few patches of artwork were covered with a strange semi-opaque substance... we assumed this was related to restoration efforts.
Upstairs, above the chapel, the royal suites had further ornamentation worthy of sarcasm.
"Hercules always seems to solve his problems the same way– smash, smash, smashy-smash."
"Why are there winged cherubs in a Greek Pantheon scene? This is clearly mixing mythology"
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| Gold leaf EVERYWHERE. Peter on the left, Paul on the right. |
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| Beautiful patterns inlaid on the floor |
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| Mosaics |
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| Mosaics and geometric patterns everywhere–local craftsmen had their say. |
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| On the far left back wall, we see Paul taking a bath in a cup. In the middle on the back wall, we see Paul getting hauled up into a castle in a tiny basket. Peter (in blue on the back far left and back right) seems completely normal. |
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| And if we look further to the left we see Paul tripping (?) while being targeted by the laser-aimed pigeon of the holy spirit. |
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| Peter and Paul are just *really* close friends. Suspiciously close. |
On the subject of Arranchinos: MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
They're these fried rice balls surrounding a delicious meat filling and they're SO GOOD. You really can't eat too much at once–they're very dense– but man! So nice. After trying several over the course of our trip, Mer and I agreed any attempt to bring these over to the US would just result in US frying habits screwing it up. They'd end up greasy and gross instead of savory and scrumptious.
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| Gelato is good. |
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| Stray dogs EVERYWHERE. |
This particular cathedral had a spiral staircase that led to the roof, and from here we could see an elevated view of Palermo from the long walkway stretching between the dome and the bell towers. It was amazing! As I'll mention several times in my recounting of the trip, dogs are everywhere in Sicily and this cathedral rooftop was no exception–someone brought their dog up.
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| From the roof of the church |
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| Those bell towers look dramatic. |
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| A creepy-as-fuck way to keep someone's arm bones. |
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| Note to self–not all stone lasts the ravages of time, and sometimes the facade of profound art dissolves away to reveal our hockey mask bones and unveil our true nature as slasher film stars. |
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| Chillin' like a villain |
