Walking Around Palermo (Featuring Actually Going Into Places): Part Due

Palermo's Cathedral

Have I mentioned yet how much I love Palermo? I know Palermo gets very little attention when people book their whirlwind tours of all the great sights in Italy. But it should.

Because all roads in Palermo lead to the Quatto Canti, I ended up at the Quattro Canti. This is the Four Corners. And there are four buildings at each of the four corners, each in the style of the other, with the concave facade. Each has a different statue of the same theme. On the bottom floor of each are each of the four seasons. On the second floor are each of the four Spanish kings of Sicily. And on the third floor are each of the four patron saints of Palermo.

One of things I love about this city is that the compact historic core is very walkable. It looks like it is many blocks long, but the blocks are exceedingly short. And, soon enough, I reached my next destination: the Cathedral of Palermo.

It's huge. The exterior is beautiful,

Construction of the cathedral also began in the 1100's. Are you getting the impression that this was some sort of Golden Age for Sicily in general and Palermo in particular?

Let's have a look inside.

It's beautiful in that "cathedral" sort of way.

I'm not denigrating the place. I'm really not. And the exterior really is magnificent. It's just that it is no Martorana.

But it is a whole lot bigger.

Again, it was spectacular. But just a few minutes earlier I saw the most beautiful church interior I've ever seen in all my life. How do you live up to that?

This is one of the side doors into the cathedral.

One last look at the exterior before we move on.

This is the view toward the Norman Palace. The Norman Palace is one of the absolute must-see attractions in Palermo. I did not go in because I forgot that this was the Norman Palace when I was out walking.

There's always tomorrow. Time to hoof it to my next destination.

The enormous Teatro Massimo.

It is reputedly the second largest theater in the world. I was thinking. It's really easy to claim to be the second most of anything, isn't it? If you claim to be first, to be the most, someone will fight you on that. But claim to be number two? No one is going to fight you and claim, "No. We're second best. Not you." So why not go for it? Why not proclaim yourself #2?

Anyway, I did go in the Teatro Massimo. But the next English language tour was too long to wait. And I had other places to see.

Off we go to the next stop for the day. It's not too far.