20100111 – Eating Palermo

Today was our day to wander around Palermo and to see what Sicily had to offer us. We stopped by the main Cathedral, looked inside, were adequately impressed by what we saw, and then headed towards our next destination: the Catacombs dei Cappuccini. Actually, we were impressed by the Cathedral. The Lonely Planet described the interior of this church as rather bland, but if this was bland, then I don’t know what bland is. There were lavishly decorated alters, huge paintings, and many more of the trappings that we have grown used to seeing in these gorgeous Italian churches.

But, the Catacombs were our number one destination for the day. These catacombs house thousands of bodies, arranged along the walls both lying down and hanging in niches. The bodies were in different states of preservation. Some were in such “good condition” that it would not have surprised us much if they popped up off of the wires that they were hanging from and started chatting with us. Others had dried skin hanging off of their skulls. Most of the bodies were simply skeletons covered in their leathery brown skin.

And these catacombs do not only house monks, but also wealthy or prominent citizens still dressed in their burial clothing. The different clothing styles were very interesting. You could see suits, robes, and dresses from the past, all in very good condition. After seeing the rooms of bones in Rome, I didn’t think that I would be bothered by this site, but I was. I didn’t understand why this was open to the public or why it was ever built in the first place. There were children lying in these open tombs. They were perfectly preserved! They way that the bodies were arranged was also closer to real life. It is possible that this was the intended effect, but it was disturbing. For example, one of the rooms had the remains of two children sitting together in a small chair. That same room had two cradles containing children who had probably died at birth. Many other bodies were propped up with wires and filled with straw to make them appear lifelike. The facial expressions ranged from fear to curiosity to conversational.

Anyhow, we saw it, and we were amazed by the site. But it is important for me to describe my mind set when we left. In Rome, the way that the bones were arranged in the catacomb created a degree of separation between the dead body and reality. The bones were now art. Here, they were bodies; thousands of dead bodies. They had postcards for sale, but I just couldn’t bring myself to send any. I hope the Roman cards were appreciated, but these ones were just too real.

Around this time we also stopped into a shop where puppets were made. Palermo is famous for its puppet shows. Heck, they were even in the Godfather! We were not able to see a show, but seeing the puppet master weld together a breast plate was really cool.

So, after seeing a whole lot of dead people, we decided to have some of the world’s best cake: sette veli. We went to the pasticceria that made it famous and sat down for some Sette Velli, Marzipan, and a cappuccino. This shop had a welcoming atmosphere despite being in a run down section of town. It is actually the perfect experience. Here is the best hole in the wall location! We had gone there earlier and tried to buy some cake, but were not able to. When we asked for the cake, the woman behind the counter said something in Italian, but didn’t hand us cake. We were confused. Eventually, she brought in another person who said that the cake was still frozen. They were both incredibly nice. We came back later (after the catacombs) to get our cake. It’s tough to describe sette velli, but think of it as thin layers of chocolate cake separated by a delicious pudding type substance and some crunchy sugary layers. It was so delicious. The marzipan was shaped into different fruits: bananas, strawberries, oranges, etc. It was so beautiful that I figured we should try one. I know that marzipan is not entirely special to the region, but I have never had it. It was sugary but the texture was nice, and so was the treat.

After eating our snack, we headed to the market to look for some bread for lunch. Jeremy was also looking for some pizza. We ate some ricotta cheese cooked with oregano, bought some awesome bread, and tried a cannoli. If I didn’t say anything more about the Sicilian markets, I would be leaving out one of my favorite parts of this trip. I love the markets. They are filled with vendors of meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, vegetables, fish, and anything else you could ever want. There are loaves of meat as large as a human leg, fresh strawberries, gigantic cheese wheels, whole swordfish, tripe, spleen (I think that Italy is the number one importer of spleen and tripe) and fruit that you have never before seen in your life. We bought this one fruit that had a texture like pumpkin mixed with jello. I had one of the best apples in my life at a market in San Gimignano (not Sicily, but Italy) and the oranges and strawberries that Jeremy tried were perfect. And people in Palermo were so friendly. Remember in San Gimignano when the lady in the cheese store told us to leave? Well, a street vendor in Palermo who sold us cheese with mandarine oranges remembered us from earlier in the day and let us try all of her different and wonderful cheeses.

We also wanted to see Monreale on this day. It was supposed to be an easy bus ride and an excellent view, so we were willing to make the journey. Monreale is high up on a hill, has a nice church, and is known for its own type of bread. Combined, it makes for a great destination.

In Monreale, we bought some more bread, made especially in Monreale. This bread has a soft inside, but a tough exterior. The best part is that it has sesame seeds on it, and it has managed to capture the taste of the seeds throughout the entire bread. I loved it!

We did see some nice views of Palermo, but another nice aspect of Monreale was the church. The ceiling of the church was decorated with many beautiful mosaics. They were some of the nicest and largest mosaics I have ever seen. The dome of the church was covered with the face of Jesus, and it is said that his eyes track you wherever you go in the church. There was a wedding going on in the church when we were visiting, so we didn’t dawdle.

After seeing Monreale, we went back to Palermo and to our room to relax for a bit before dinner. Our host had recommended a restaurant that had good pasta for a good price. I was hesitant to try it out…if hesitant means annoyingly resistant. Anyhow, the other places that we thought about eating at were closed so we trekked it over to this location. I am glad that we did. For 5 Euros (HA! Take that guy on the internet who says that you can’t get a 5 euro plate of pasta in Italy! Ha! You are wrong!) we were fed a nice plate of Pasta al forno. Pasta al forno is something like spaghetti-os covered in a tomato meat sauce and cheese and then cooked oven so that the cheese melts and crisps up. The best part of the experiences was our arrival, when we mentioned Gieuseppe’s name and the owner just shuttled us into the restaurant. We didn’t know if we had somehow already ordered our meal by mistake or what was happening. We were also privileged to watch American sitcoms and the Simpsons in Italian. Gieuseppe said that The Simpsons are very popular in Italy. Though this still doesn’t solve the mystery of the origins of Duff Beer.

Now would be a good time to mention the overall atmosphere in Sicily. Italians have not been rude to us by any means. But, in America, we do have this perception that Italians are very warm and open. I suppose I thought that all Italian women would be like my grandmother, happily welcoming me into their kitchens and feeding me pasta. Stereotypes are wrong, and they cause problems. And, it was entirely unreasonable to expect random people to feed me pasta. But, returning to reality, I suspect that many of the “stereotypes” that we have developed came from the Sicilian immigrants to the US. Thus, when we were in Sicily, things made more sense. I guess it also makes sense that Massimiliano is Sicilian.

Aside from this, our experiences in Sicily were great. So many people were friendly. The owner of the restaurant in Catania who smiled at us and waved at us during the day and then shook our hands after dinner. The workers in the museum who let us in for free. The street vendors in Palermo and at the futbol game who gave us free samples of fried fat and spleen. All of these factors, combined with the nicer than normal weather and geography made our trip to Sicily so very memorable. I would love to return to Sicily and spend more time there.