Thingorjus needs advice on Sicily

Old Mar 4th, 2005, 09:26 AM
  #21  
 
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Uh-oh, Keith would not be happy with my suggestion -- I had forgotten that he MUST have a pool...
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 10:23 AM
  #22  
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I am peeved already! Jolly Hotel Palermo is the only hotel in downtown Palermo with a swimming pool. Thank you, Mr. Richard Granger.

How bad is the area it is in? Would you say that the hotel is dumpy? I don't like dumpy. Where are the best rooms located? Back or front/harbour?

Eloise, where did you stay in Palermo?
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 10:49 AM
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Gorjus, I can't believe you're not coming to Montreal. What am I going to do with all this gin stacked in the living room?
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 10:56 AM
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I did stay at the Jolly Hotel. It was my first trip to Sicily and I felt the need to be a little more "protected" on that supposedly wild and Mafia-ridden island, so I booked myself on a seven-day tour of Sicily that used Jolly hotels everywhere, including Palermo.

The irony is that I then stayed on alone in Palermo for three days, and the Palermitans -- with the exception of one taxi driver, but I don't have to go to Palermo to meet rude and/or dishonest taxi drivers -- could not have been nicer, more agreeable, more helpful. I wandered through most of Palermo and never felt threatened in the daytime; as a woman alone, I would probably hesitate to do so at night. And I'm returning to Sicily for the third time this May; it's grown on me and I like it a lot.

But to try to answer your questions. The Jolly hotels are a little bit cookie-cutter; they're the nearest thing Italy has to a large hotel chain aimed, I think, chiefly at the business traveler. The food in the restaurant was all right (as tour members, we all got the same thing), but it's a large, rather impersonal room.

The location is pretty much as I have described it: it looks out on the coast road and the fun fair on the other side of the road. There is another main road to the right of the hotel, which has absolutely no character and goes to the train station.

Behind the hotel is the section of Palermo called the Khalsa (sp?); it's the oldest and probably the most rundown, and one should probably exercise care there. But the Regional Gallery of Sicily in the Palazzo Abatellis is in that area, as is the Palazzo Mirto (given to the state and preserved, with furnishings and all, more or less as it was in the late 19th century). The street immediately behind the Jolly hotel is the Via Butera, which is noted for two things: the Marionette Museum and the palazzo that Giuseppe di Lampedusa spent his last years in (living in only a tiny part of it). If you want to pay homage to Lampedusa, have a pizza at the Pizzeria Bellini on the piazza of the same name; eating there and going to the showings of the film club were the only entertainments he could afford...
You will be on the Piazza Bellini anyway to visit La Martorana (an absolute jewel of a church, covered in Byzantine-style mosaics) and next to it, tiny San Cataldo, totally undecorated but very atmospheric (about 9th century, I think).

The Jolly hotel is within walking distance of what is considered the absolute center of the old town of Palermo, called Quattro Canti (four corners) at the intersection of, I think, Via Maqueda and Via Roma.

Is the hotel itself dumpy? No, I wouldn't say dumpy, but it certainly doesn't exude charm. Both of my rooms (pre- and post-tour) looked out to the front; I imagine the back rooms look out partly on the undistinguished street mentioned above and partly on the old buildings of the Khalsa area.

From what I think I have understood of your tastes from your posts, the Jolly Hotel is perhaps not the first hotel I would think of in connection with you...

I think perhaps your choice is between the Villa Igea and breaking it gently to Keith that there will be no swimming pool at your Palermo hotel.

But Palermo IS fascinating and well worth four days (don't miss, as someone has already said, the cathedral in Monreale (and the adjoining cloister), the Palace of the Normans with the Cappella Palatina, La Martorana (mentioned above). And I even quite enjoyed the Archeological Museum (some interesting archaic metopes from one of the temples at Selinunte) and the Regional Gallery (a lovely Antonella di Messina Virgin). There are dozens of wildly Baroque churches and oratories, and for local colour, the Vucciria market area.

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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 10:59 AM
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P.S. Maybe Keith would be a bit propitiated if you went to Mondello for a day. I don't know it myself, but it's a resort area on the sea very close to Palermo...
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 07:07 PM
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Thank you, Eloise, for taking the time to issue a report on Palermo. No, I am not the type to enjoy chain hotels. However, I abolutely need a swimming pool. Besides, if there is so much to see in Palermo (and we will take side trips), I doubt we will be in our rooms that much.

I would hate to stay at Villa Igeia because I have been in situations where I was stuck in a hotel that was far from "the action," and I was miserable.

JQ, it makes me sick to turn down a pint of gin.
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 07:34 PM
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The Albergo Conchiglia D'Oro has a pool,
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 07:47 PM
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Where is this place, Mimi????? How did you find out about it????

Cheers.
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 07:59 PM
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http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...mo_Sicily.html
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Old Mar 4th, 2005, 08:10 PM
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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...LD:en%26sa%3DN
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Old Mar 5th, 2005, 06:13 AM
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Thanks, Mimi. But this Albergo Whatsit is in a suburb. Just as bad as staying at Villa Igeia.

But, there is hope. My sister, Jennifer, has a friend whose mother is from Palermo. She is going to email me info. Hurrah!! And I ordered the Sicily guide from Dorling Kindersley.
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