I hadn’t set foot in Italy in 40 years and Mr Glover has never been. We were way overdue for a visit. Reports made in season times sound awful. Decided November might have fewer crowds, as well as offer distraction from election time in DC. And so we’re off!

Our itin is Rome, Florence, Sorrento, Naples, Catania, and Palermo - staying 3 to 5 nights in each city. My formerly intrepid driver partner has declared himself retired from out of country driving, so we are on foot and public transport.

Tonight is our last night of 4 here in Rome. A mere taste of the city. Felt fortunate to have 3 full days of spectacular weather. Cool in the ams, but warming to about 70 each days. Bright blue skies and full sun . The city is jammed, perhaps even more so because Nov 1 was a national holiday - providing Italians with a 3 date weekend. As advised we bought tix to Vatican, Colosseum/forum, Pantheon, and Borghese Gallery online in advance. Lines for buying tix for all these places were horrendous. Can’t imagine doing that. Yet, people do. Can see why people advise running over to St Peter’s in the very early am….as the line to enter the basilica extended half way around the square - looking like an hour or more…..at least when we came out of the Museum at 12 or so. So had to give St Peter’s a miss and just moved on to Castel Sant Angelo, whose line was maybe 15 mins.

Our Vatican tickets were for a 2 hour guided tour in English. Might not have gone for a guide had those tix not been the only ones available for our dates. Glad we did. The Vatican Museum was crazy - shoulder to shoulder people on the “highlights” route that ends just before Sistine Chapel. Our very good guide Valentina said our day was possibly even more crowded than the current norm because the museum would be closed on the following day, the aforementioned Nov 1. Despite the craziness, it was a good tour, and enough for us.

Spent day 2 at the Colosseum and Forum. We were on our own here, reading signage and occasionally consulting some pages torn from a Frommers book. What fabulous sites these are! Treasures. Spent several hours here. Then went on to the Pantheon. A mob scene outside there as well, but space to move around once inside.

Today we had morning tix for the Borghese Gallery. Their 2 hour timed entry provided good crowd control, suc that it was an easy pleasure to stroll about the rooms on the two floors of this beautiful palace. We didn’t sign on for a tour here, Signage was good. We missed seeing 2 major sculptures/paintings due to a few closures
But that’s always the case. Spent another hour or so strolling the beautiful park - everyone out on bikes, scooters, foot etc. a few interesting buskers. As birders, we enjoyed seeing the parrots flying around.

Lodging. We stayed at the Xenia Guest House, a pensione type place of only 4 rooms on the fifth floor of a beautiful old building in the old Jewish quarter. We had a pretty spacious modern room that was quite quiet once our windows on busy Arenula Street were closed. This was super convenient and we walked every where. Cool antique lift up and down. The offsite manager was easily reachable on What’s App and was super helpful/responsive in every way. Directly next door is a small cafe for breakfast or lunch - busy with good food and super efficient service. Across the street is a great little pizzeria with a few seats.

More food. We decided to check out one of the kosher restaurants known in the quarter. Went to Casolino our first night. Smallish, casual/cozy atmosphere. Tried traditional fried artichoke. Tasty, interesting. I had excellent eggplant parm and husband had tortelloni with spinach and ricotta. We had a very knowledgeable and helpful server. Sorry I didn’t get his name. Had my first wine from the Golan Heights. On eve 2 we went with one of the recs of our Rome host -
Reunion 13 in Trastevere. Had good, not memorable, pastas and salads. Fun vibe there though. Obviously very popular with locals. Reasonable prices. Last night we were sadly without reservations, so walked a few blocks in the quarter to Al Pomiere, which had been recommended as an old favorite of someone we know who lives part time in Rome. We were able to get in at 7 before all the reservations showed up after. Many Italian families. Definitely an old fashioned kind of place. I actually had lamb and husband young pig. Ok good for quite reasonable prices.

All in all a great intro visit to Rome. On to Florence by train tomorrow. To be continued.

on for the ride

Me too, glover!

Looking forward to more!

It was a very short taxi trip from the Florence train station to our Hotel Orto de Medici. We could have walked it and did on the way out. The hotel claims that its courtyard was once the garden of Lorenzo de Medici’s art school, where Lorenzo met Michelangelo in 1489. The building/palace itself dates back to 19th century, with some frescos and artifacts remaining and incorporated into its fairly recent renovation.We loved this hotel and thought it a real bargain for Florence. Walkable to everything yet not dead center highest tourist concentrated area. Super nice staff, great included breakfast, spacious high ceiling room , great shower.

We arrived a liitle early for our checkin time and waited briefly in the lobby with coffee. After a brief rest we went in scout for some minor food. Fell into the first place across the street, a casual lunch spot apparently run by Koreans. Ate a couple of their paninis at outside table, The weather continued glorious. Had bought online tix for the Uffizi galleries for Tuesday, later we learned a staff strike was planned for that day. Being intentionally planless for our arrival day on Sunday, we walked over to the Uffizi and found the line for entry on the “first free Sunday” was short, so spent rest of our day there. A few rooms were closed, as always. But we were able to see what we wanted with a fairly thin crowd.

Had made a dinner res at Trattoria Marione de Trebbio, based on rec from Katie Parla, a popular American food writer now living in Rome but with blogs etc re eating all over Italy. It did not disappoint. One of those charming cozy places with good local food at reasonable prices. I had veal slices and fabulous roasted potatoes and mr glover had a beef stew that he declared excellent. Brief chat with contemporary couple at neighboring table from Chicago/New York now living in Asheville. Their home was safe but without water. Friends of theirs had lost everything. Briefly touched on election anxiety.

Next day we really enjoyed the long walk across the Ponte Vecchio and way up to the Piazzale Michelangelo for a fantastic view of the old city below on yet another blue sky sunny warm day. Noting that the famous church of Santa Croce was not far, we stopped there for few hours visit. It’s quite beautiful and interesting - the largest Franciscan church in the world, containing the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Stopped for great gelato along our long way home. After a brief rest we walk down our street and split a huge good salad and some decent pizza at a pizzeria called Simbiosi, where all was allegedly organic….

Next day we walked over to the Palazzo Vecchio, built in the form of a castle from 1299 to 1314 with a 94 meter tall tower. Then on to the Piti Palace, a grand palace built in the 1400s that now houses 5 museums. But alas, because it’s now under the same auspices as Uffizi galleries, it was closed also due to staff one day strike. Oh well, welcome to Italy. But the lovely formal Boboli Gardens behind the palace were open, so we strolled through those instead. Up and down and all around until we were exhausted. So just had to stop for gelato on the way home again…. After our now standard pre dinner rest we walked to a hotel recommended restaurant - Santo Bevitore - a beautiful restaurant where all I remember is a starter of potato flan. The taste of the best scalloped potatoes somehow made into a beautiful little mold.

Spent our final day in Florence at the huge Duomo complex finally, visiting the church, baptistry and museum. Stunning mosaics - though the famed ones at the top of the baptistry are being restored so were under wraps. Had to make do with a picture of those. Then we went on to our preticketed timed entry at the Academia, where Michelangelo’s beautiful David stands, along with Renaissance paintings, plaster casts by Bertolini, and a collection of ancient musical instruments.

On our last Florence night we went back to the Marione Trattoria we had liked so well a few days earlier. . Had another great dinner there, this time commisserating over disastrous election with a contemporary couple from Houston and New York. They too had planned their Italy trip to be out of US in Nov. talked about how to deal with the disappointment.

Florence is a beautiful city and we enjoyed it more each day, once I got over feeling sad that, like so many places, it’s one big shopping mall. All those beautiful old buildings - turned into stores for hoards of tourists. We stopped in only 2 or 3 all told. Definitely mostly over shopping …

Figure we must be averaging 15,000 steps or so a day on this trip. Whether that will cancel out pasta, pizza, gelato, wine etc calories remains to be seen….

on to Sorrento!

Since we were a fairly short walk from the train station and had minimal luggage, we decided to walk from our Florence Hotel to our train/bus to Sorrento. After several blocks, Mr Glover decided to check his phone just to ensure we were on correct street. But omg he had left his phone at hotel. So while I guarded luggage at entrance of another hotel, he ran back to get the phone. Fortunately we had left ourselves plenty of time before train departure. This 3 plus hour trip is first a fast train to Naples and then a very easy connection to a bus on to Sorrento - all operated by the same company. A pleasant, comfortable ride.

Again our Sorrento hotel wasn’t far from train station, so walked it. The Hotel Januzzi Relais was lovely. They upgraded us to a bigger room with a balcony overlooking one of Sorrento’s main piazzas - with a faraway view of the Bay of Naples. The hotel/bldg had been in same family for generations - since 1852 - first as one of towns early department stores, then as family home. So lots of interesting historical photos displayed, along with in room video of complete restoration of the bldg several years ago. Hotel had a beautiful indoor and outdoor breakfast space for consuming too many calories of big breakfast spread - including beautiful pastries baked, the sisters said, according to grandma’s recipes.

As luck would have it the first thing we learned upon arrival at the hotel was that there would be a one day strike of trains and buses the following day. Sigh. That nixed our plan of public transport to either Amalfi Coast or Pompeii. Changed plan and decided just to see Sorrento on day one, hit Amalfi on day two and do Pompeii from Naples once there. So we had a nice relaxing day in Sorrento, walking around town and down to both its marinas. Some excellent gelato later. Thought we had a confirmed online dinner reservation at a recommended restaurant just across our piazza, but on arrival found handwritten sign on door saying they were closed just for today, see you tomorrow. Ended up at some huge tourist trappy kind of place called Parrucchiano. Lemon trees real and fake galore, good enough fish though. Went home and made another dinner reservation at Z’Ntonio, which had been the night before’s fail.

After great breakfast at hotel we walked a few blocks to the stop for the local bus to the coast. After half hour or so of twisty turny miles and spectacular views, we got off at Positano. Then a beautiful long downhill walk thru town and to harbor, just taking it all in. Town was plenty busy, though not quite oppressive. Can’t imagine in season crowd in hot weather. Decided to take short ferry ride to Amalfi. That was great because we got the spectacular off shore views on what was another super weather day. Once there we had a nice pizza and salad lunch at a busy seaside restaurant. Then we walked along the seaside road to the neighboring town of Atrani, which has become somewhat famous as one of the filming sites for the Ripley series. An interesting contrast as it appeared almost deserted. It was just a quick look at Atrani though, as by now we were too gassed to contemplate the high narrow staircases seen in Ripley. Back in Amalfi we took a quick look into the small museum at the harbor where there were some exhibits on Amalfi history and its claimed invention of the compass (now disputed apparently).

After short rest we walked across the piazza to the Z’Ntonio Restaurant, which was quite wonderful. Excellent service, beautiful cozy spot and great food - a beautiful salad of arrugula, tomatoes , garlic, Parmesan and great lemon ish dressing. And then split a whole filleted white fish that the server characterized as like branzino. Bread to die for, some plain and some thin crusty pizza like pieces.

Sorrento is a nice liitle town itself and indeed as advertised an easy jumping off pt to Amalfi.

On to Naples.

Your story brought back memories! We recently visited Italy as well, traveling with a group. We used Omio and Italo for trains, GetYourGuide for tours, and rented a car through 8rental. It was very convenient, and booking tickets in advance helped us avoid long lines at popular sites like the Vatican and the Colosseum.

Enjoying this. Thanks for taking the time to post a report.

Totally enjoying this trip report. Looking forward to the next city.

3 nights in Naples

Though we’re traveling light (a carryon roller board and back pack each), still wanted to avoid taking local basic train from Sorrento to Naples - as it’s often very crowded without real space for any luggage at all. Checked out a van/shuttle service (no availability), then private driver (exorbitant). Settled on easy direct bus to Naples airport and taxi from there to city hotel Piazza Bellini. Had some really nice views of Vesuvius from bus going into Naples.

By now we both have the proverbial travel cold- or whatever. Fortunately adrenalin kept us going for next day’s trip to Pompeii. Luck out with another beautiful day! We’re close to a subway stop, so take that to the main train station to pick up local train to Pompeii. Pretty easy to navigate.

Decide we want a guide for Pompeii, so go to the appointed place for that inside the entrance. Since it would be 150 E for the two of us, we hang around for just a bit to see if any other English speakers show up. Sure enough about 15 mins later guide available has assembled 8 or so of us from Ireland, Canada, and Oregon…our guide Malo was excellent. Tall very spry 60 something - fast talking and fast walking! Believe we spent about 3 hours powering walking pieces of the vast site - working to keep up with Malo’s rapid in-depth commentary. He had a great sense of humor as well…

Our hotel was in a very lively gritty student area of Naples. Right around the corner was a street full of bars and restaurants. We sampled some Naples pizza in two spots there - Sorbillo and Attanasio. Pretty similar to most of pizza so far in Italy. Thick wonderful crust around edges, very thin everywhere else, a little soggy in the middle and never loaded with stuff. Third Naples night we went in the other direction from our hotel to a recommended traditional Sicilian spot called Osteria da Carmela. It’s a small charming place with a single server who’s a quiet dead ringer for Gabe Kaplan. I chose 2 dishes that were redundant - seafood soup and seafood pasta. Both good but so labor intensive pulling all those different tiny creatures out of their shells.

We stopped by a farmacia and got some cold meds. Slept a lot and punted on next day’s plans to go to Herculaneum and Naples Archeological Museum. Hotel Bellini was a nice place to hang out at least - another beautiful old building with new insides. Always interesting to see how the insides of these historic bldgs have been rehabbed. This one had a very modern hip feel to it. Funny that its new wood floors had been so varnished that every step squeaked. We did a lot of squeaking back and forth to the great included breakfast, served outside in the grand open aired atrium of the bldg or inside next door.

Hotel called us a taxi for the airport for our Ryan Air flight to Catania in Sicily. That flight was an hour late leaving Naples, but otherwise uneventful. Taxied from there to Catania’s Hotel Liberty. Decor here is a big change from the sleek modern places in Rome, Florence, and Naples. Another beautiful old bldg, but this time with an all art nouveau interior.

Very good writing. I feel like I am right there with you. Along for the ride!
What place did you stay in Naples? How did you choose it, and would you recommend it?

Enjoying your trip report. We stayed at Hotel Piazza Bellini in 2012, glad to hear it is still a nice place to stay!

Thanks for your report. What a whirlwind trip you took!

I also stayed at Hotel Piazza Bellini, I think in 2016 or 2017. It's a nice hotel. I was in Naples for about a week last year and decided to stay by the water because I wanted to be able to go for runs on the Lungomare in the mornings. My first time staying in that area, but I liked it.


We loved Catania. Great weather continues, so we spend the first day just walking all over the historic center, which is full of amazing late-baroque architecture, built after the 1693 earthquake destroyed much of the older city, and is now a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site. Churches galore - including one with a ceiling to rival Sistine Chapel’s - a stunning Benedictine monastery turned university, a castle/museum, and a lively large fish market, and on….. Sorry not to have seen the inside of the city’s Teatro Massimo Bellini, which opened in 1890 with a performance of Catania born Bellini’s opera Norma. Some have said it has the best acoustics in the world. Outside was beautiful though…. Some nice wide pedestrian only streets here with nice wide smooth sidewalks , but also plenty of narrow little lanes…. Good meals at a small recommended trattoria, then a very pretty sleek one recommended by the hotel called “Ristorante Be Quiet”, and twice at a nearby hip placed called “Al Vicolo” - that seemed to inhabit two blocks worth of a dead end lane near our hotel.


On day two from Catania we signed on for an “Easy Top” Etna tour with a local tour company. We were picked up at 830 at our hotel, accompanied by our driver/guide Salvo and contemporary couples from Australia, Romania, and Hungary. Australian couple is over landing in a trailer all over Europe - uh - for 5 years! They’ll be a year just in Italy. Amazing. She talks my ear off to and from Etna and thru out our included restaurant lunch. At least she’s interesting. Our guide Salvo is very good. He was born in a village outside Catania, so talks about living under Mother Etna. Landscape becomes more and more interesting as we approach Etna base camp. There we are offered heavier jackets and shoes if we are unprepared for cold and some hiking. We two are good to go with layers and sturdy shoes. We take the cable car to 2500 m and walk a bit through snowy area to get some views of Etna peaks, which are off and on clouded over and clear. Today we are prohibited from going any higher because winds there are too strong. Back on cable car down to 2000 or so m for a lovely longer hike for great views over Silvestri inactive craters. Back at base we had a nice group lunch of bruschetta, pasta, cannoli, and wine. After lunch and on way back we’re given hard hats and torches to view a lava cave. Locking down at where we’re going, we acknowledged to one another that spelunking had never been on either of our bucket lists. But here we are. Turns out all we needed to do was drop down a little stone wall 5 feet or so to the atrium of the cave. Though that itself was no mean feat for either of us - needing catching by Salvo, who was certainly half the size of either of us. We then just stood mostly in the atrium of the cave as Salvo explained the cave’s formation and geology. Thankfully we can now check off “spelunking.” Dropped off at hotel by 5. A long and fun day!

On Day 3 from Catania we walked to the train station to catch an hour train to Taormina. We were a little lax with our research this time, so had really no idea where to connect with an alleged included shuttle from the train station by the coast to Taormina upper town. And so we walked again. Not a bad walk along road, beautiful sea views all the way. Noticed the sign for the funicular to the town’s famous ancient theatre, so took that to the upper town, buying a round trip ticket. Walked all around the theatre site taking pictures from various viewpoints. Sat in the stands for awhile imagining how fabulous it would be to see a concert here- views of the sea across the stage through the theater ruins straight ahead and Etna to the right.
Sit in an outdoor cafe for a bit and eat a panini. Figure out return to Catania strategy. We now have return tickets for both funicular and train. But there’s that long walk along road from funicular back to coast level train station. Realize easy way would have been a bus. Better late than never. Locate bus station in upper town. Lucky break is that entire ticketing system for bus is down, so our easy ride from there back to Catania will be free- offsetting our unused funicular and train return tix. Arrive back at bus station with hope of stopping by Iliad phone store so husband can reopen his phone. Having closed it once, he had forgotten password to his Italian Sim. Fortunately that was easily sorted by nice young guy at ILIAD store, who was able to remind Ed that his password was still 1234.

Back to our hotel for a short rest before dinner at the hip happening place a few blocks a way.

And now, on to Siracusa/Ortigia via train.

After a nice relaxing hour plus train ride from Catania, we arrived in Siracusa. The weather continues to be perfect, so we decide to just walk from the Siracusa stop across the bridge to the charming island historic sector of Ortigia. Some time ago I saw on line a review of a simple hotel Domus Mariae Albergo, formerly a convent, with fabulous sea view rooms at a quite reasonable price. Still operated by nuns, though they keep a very low profile and are not “the face” of the hotel. I immediately reserve there! There’s no lift and we are up 3 flights of marble steps. Cheerful manager David insists on lugging our roller boards up the stairs. Our room is spacious and plainly decorated with tile floor. On walls throughout the hotel are various black and white mythological lithograph prints But omg the view of the turquoise sea! Walk out door/windows to a tiny balcony fit for 2, virtually over the sea. Included usual breakfast happens across the street at the nun’s slightly more upscale operation.


Walk out to some of the main piazzas and then along sidewalk next the sea. Take lots of pix, as it is by now “the golden hour’” so the churches and other buildings look beautiful . Pass by some busy seafood restaurants where large groups are enjoying huge plates of shellfish - big Sunday mid afternoon dinner. But I’m following some restaurant recommendations of food writer Katie Parlo, so we already have a res at a small place called Rainieri. It’s a small pretty place, where we ordered their 2 specials: pasta with lobster and sea bass with shellfish. Split some fried anchovies first. All delicious. Back at hotel husband notices full orange super moon shining on sea outside our room. So very beautiful.

Next day we planned to go to the archeological site of Siracusa. Blue skies and sunshine, so walked across bridge and then across Siracusa town. Really enjoyed walking around this extensive site that includes ruins of both a Greek and a Roman theater. The ancient ruins are adorned here and there with facial and body sculptures by Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj - a year long exhibit. Hard to imagine that installation….
Finish off our afternoon with some gelato from the site’s cafe and start the walk back. On a street corner in Siracusa who should we meet but our Australian overlanding friends from our Etna tour a few days earlier. After begging them to adopt us for the next 4 years, we extract ourselves and continue on to Ortygia.

After a short rest and a view of moon rise, we stroll over to the recommended Trattoria Giudecca for dinner. It’s basically a 5 table deli run by a husband and wife. We each order an anti pasta that includes most everything the place has on offer, followed by (oddly) lentil soup. Have some interesting chats there. To our right is a quiet table of 3 French couples and to our left a very lively young Sicilian woman and male friend. She goes outside briefly and returns with a very old woman, taking her to the restroom and then back out again. She returns alone to her friend and starts chatting us up in rapid fire Italian, seemingly oblivious to the fact that we haven’t a clue what she’s talking about. Then nothing would do but that I should try the same “perfect” white wine she was having, so that arrived on our table. Occasionally then she’d jump p and toast us, hugging my husband sitting next to her. Meanwhile her friend looked on with patient tolerance. Told us he spoke some Spanish ….. but not a lot as we discovered. The old lady wandered in and back out again. At some point there was also a woman dressed in full bridal regalia outside as well. Finally after many exuberant hugs with the owner, the young woman and friend were gone. She was clearly a very happy drunk. The until then quiet Toronto couple across from us then chimed in wondering what the heck was that all about? We allowed as how they could have jumped in at any point, ha ha. Then we had a sane chat with them, including a bit of US politics. They weren’t willing to adopt us either. Joked that they’ll be building a wall.

We were enjoying being in lovely quiet Ortigia so much that we decided to bag the popular day trip to the nearby towns of Noto, Modica, and Ragusa, more charming small Baroque towns. Ortigia was plenty charming and nearly bereft of tourists, especially in the eves after any day trippers had gone. We were often wandering up and down empty narrow lanes.

So on our second Ortigia day we walked back to archeological site and visited its nearby museum, which had been closed day before. My what a museum. Room after room of statues, pottery of all sizes and periods, sarcophagi, coins, and jewelry. Well marked and displayed. From the Siracusa site and other nearby Sicilian sites. Spent way too long there and then aimed for some catacombs nearby that were allegedly scheduled to open midday, but did not. So moved on to a nearby church to view Caravaggio’s painting The Burial of St Lucy (the patron saint of Siracusa). Also alleged to be open that afternoon, but was not. Italy does have its erratic openings and closings. And also, as we were warned, many places close or go under maintenance after the high summer/fall season. But really stellar weather and fewer crowds more than compensate for any closings. We can only take in so much in any case!

Our last Ortigia night’s dinner was back across the bridge in Siracusa at a restaurant called Latteria Mamma Iabica. (Thanks to ekscrunchy here on Fodors for this rec) This was another smallish very popular mom and pop place with a very busy open kitchen. Google translate helped with the Italian menu. Hostess later apologized for lack of English menu, it was late being printed after recent menu changes. Husband was a little disappointed that they serve no beer at all, only wine. We split some great stuffed artichokes and shared another good pasta dish and veal braciola with potatoes. Then onto a shared almond gelato.

Back at hotel we admired our last clear moon shining on our sea view. And one last morning view as well. Had some time the next am after last breakfast to do a couple more Ortigia things. Watched a mid age couple down on the rocks on the shore below us. He was helping her get in water. She swam as he watched and ultimately chatted with us. Some Kansans also escaping US, spending their entire visit in Ortigia. Then we Aimed for a papyrus museum, which, of course, was being worked on and hence closed once we arrived. But did manage to pierce the small puppet museum which has an interesting history and elaborate puppets. Had delicious calzones and our first arrancini at a cafe in one of Ortigia’s piazzas. Then back to hotel for arranged cab to bus station. 20 E for very short ride. Taxis are expensive all over Italy. Now on comfortable 3 hour bus ride to our last stay of trip - 5 nights in Palermo.

5 nights in Palermo

Palermo bus station just after dark was a bit of culture shock after Ortigia. Took a deal with a probable bandit taxi driver for a reasonable price to get to our b and b place dead center in historic center of city. An old friendly guy assisted by his English speaking son. Got us to Delle Vittorie rooms and suites lickedy split. This is another 6 or 7 room place with an office and a lovely common breakfast room. On the second floor of an ugly newish bldg just off Via Maqueda - a very active pedestrian way lined with shops and restaurants. Our big windows look out to both a cannoli shop and an arancini shop. But these places have thick amazingly sound proof windows. This one also has an electric metal shutter to pull down - great for blackout and quiet!


Getting a little lazy at the end of this trip, we have dinners at 4 places right along busy Via Maqueda. All are pretty easy to get into at our gringo dinner hour of 7 - after Locals do their aperitif thing and before they have dinner. Most everywhere along this street fills up quickly - mostly outside- as we are finishing - generally inside. We’ve become enamored of caponata - eggplant/olives etc, and have been ordering unusual pastas, pizzas, and seafood.

We’ve really enjoyed Palermo, walking most everywhere from our central location. A highlight for me was an afternoon at the Palazzo Butera, opened just a few years ago after an amazing restoration by an interesting couple of art dealers - as a place to show their very diverse collection and also a place to live. Beautiful inside and out. And an interesting history.

Had nearly our only rain (and then only a little ) of entire month here in Palermo as we were visiting one of the big open markets. Such a great array of seafood, veggies, and street food there.

Toured the Palermo theatre - 3rd largest in the world after Paris and Vienna. But definitely not as grand as those. Sat briefly in audience to watch rehearsal of an upcoming opera Le Grande Macabre - very very weird. Sorry nothing was on during our stay.

Palermo's Royal Palace was pretty special with a spectacularly adorned chapel. And then there was the cathedral and churches too many to visit or name.. and street performers in the Quattro Canti Square and the sad story of Sicily and the mafia in the small No Mafia museum just down the street, full of gory pictures of dead magistrates on the right side of the law.

Yesterday we went via 2 hour relaxing train ride to visit ruins of Agrigento, established in the 7th century BC and later one of the great Mediterranean powers. There was the greatest and best preserved examples of a Doric temple outside of the Parthenon. We had another beautiful day for our rather quick walk round this enormous site, spread over a ridge with beautiful views below. And really not many visitors on our day. Though who should we run into AGAIN but our now friends the Australian overlanders. Of course they had parked their trailer just outside the park, while we had taken a train and then taxi up to the site. And then power walked allllll the way back from the site to the Agrigento train station - a total of some 17,000 steps and 40 floors according to the phone. Not all of it intentional 😉. Thanks to Google maps for getting us back to our train with 2 minutes to spare, but no thanks for the ghastly short cut up off street with MANY MANY stairs. Great scenery from big train windows between Agrigento and Palermo, fields and fields of broccoli, artichokes, olive and orange trees…

Today we hired a driver to take us to the nearby hilltop town of Monreale, famous for its Norman Duomo covered on inside with mosaics. The last and greatest of Sicily’s Arab and Norman cathedrals. This was just really spectacular - and that’s saying something in light of everything we’ve seen so far on this trip!

Next up a final dinner in Palermo, flight to Rome tomorrow, and back to reality next day in time for Tday!

Thoroughly enjoying your report glover.

These are enjoyable, informative reports; and -- if you’ll forgive my pointing out that a single Italian sandwich is a "panino" -- very nicely written as well. I usually overlook trip reports on such popular destinations as Italy, but as I am at least contemplating a trip there for late next year, I was curious to see what a November trip might look like; and once I “clicked” on your report, I was drawn further in by some of your initial comments — like you, I try never to spend fewer than three nights in any city or town (though four nights are my preferred minimum), and also like you I last visited Italy on the order of 40 years ago (closer to 50, I think). So this seemed at once like a good report to start with, and so it proved to be.

But as one whose top travel priorities include avoiding tourist crowds -- avoiding them totally, utterly, and completely if possible -- I was a bit concerned to read about such things as horrendous ticket queues, mobs at the Pantheon, shoulder-to-shoulder people at the Vatican Museum, the shopping-mall look of Florence, or the need for crowd control at the Borghese Gallery. (The very phrase “crowd control” is like a flashing red warning to me.) I take it that November may no longer be the safe off-season month it used to be for travellers like me —- and if that’s the case, maybe the rest of the winter wouldn’t be for me either. (I did take note of tourist-free Ortigia, but I hope that wasn't it for the tourist-free zones.)

So I still seem to have research to do, but your set of trip reports was place to start.

(Actually, one other detail, regarding Palermo: was there anything “culturally shocking” about the city besides the bus station? If Palermo was unique enough to offer more general culture shock, I may want to look into it further!)