Our trip to Palermo was a long one, and involved 3 trains, each a couple hours long. It was a welcome relief when late in the afternoon we arrived at our apartment, and our patience was rewarded. The apartment was the nicest one we had stayed in yet; very modern, clean and most importantly it had an amazing looking shower. So after about five days without a shower I put my bags in my room, pulled out my pyjamas, hopped in the shower and it was GLORIOUS.

The difficulty with having a nice apartment is that you never want to go anywhere. Being a person who suffers from laziness, this proved a problem for me over the course of the week, especially since the trip had thus far been very hectic, and the lead up to the trip was chaos. So I treated this week as a relaxing holiday from the holiday (not to mention I was starting to come down with something, no doubt from the exhaustion of travelling).

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I was, however, persuaded to go on a walk to what was promised to be the most beautiful neighbourhood in Palermo. As we walked up and down the disheveled, forgotten streets, past the mounds of rubbish and dog poo, this seemed less and less likely, although Dad kept promising that we must almost be there. Mum and I were particularly keen to forget the wild goose chase as she had just been reading about the crime problem in Sicily, and I didn’t want any first hand experiences.

Finally we got back on the beaten track, and headed to the main part of the city, which is the shopping street (far, far prettier). Here we stopped for a coffee and a cannoli, before heading to the famous naked fountain, Fontana Pretoria, which depicts the gods of Olympus in their full glory. Despite the prolific amount of nudity in museums all over the world, the fountain seems to be a source of embarrassment to the people of Palermo and the place in which it’s situated is called the Square of Shame. It must also be noted that the sculptor had a strange understanding of female anatomy (I presume he never married), and made the artistic decision to put perfectly circular breasts and pancake bottoms on the goddesses.

Another time I was made to leave the apartment (I’m spoiled, I know) was to see the Palermo Cathedral (the churches in Italy are another level of lavish). We paid a few euros extra (everything costs money in Europe, even toilets) and went up onto roof which provided a beautiful view over Palermo. Back down in the cathedral we noticed a memorial to a local priest called Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi, who openly challenged the Mafia. Of course the Mafia weren’t too happy about this, so they killed him, on his 56th birthday no less. His death brought about a big public backlash against the Mafia, which led to arrests. So although his death was a tragedy, in the end he made the change he sought to create.

After my parents complained that they had been doing all of the organisation on this trip, I was made to plan our next excursion. I decided to go for something a little bit different from what we’d been doing thus far, so I took us to the catacombs of a Capuchin monastery, which was more macabre than I was expecting. We weren’t allowed to take photos in there, but there are some online. Essentially the walls are lined with rows of dead people who have been nailed up there. They are still dressed; their clothes now tattered with age and their flesh worn away completely, leaving hundreds of shrunken skeletons in suits, dresses and robes.

At one time it was fashionable to have your body preserved there, and your family would pay to have your body upkept so that they could come and visit you, have meals with you and dress you. If your family stopped paying they would leave your body to rot. This trend went out of fashion, with the last people being buried there in the 1920’s, including a baby that has been so well preserved it looks like she could have died last week. The catacombs were forgotten and only recently rediscovered.

Next it was my parents turn again to plan an outing, and we caught a bus and walked up a large hill to the Cathedral of Monreale, which is considered one of the most important attractions in Sicily due to its large cloister and beautiful mosaics. There is a legend that William II of Sicily fell asleep under a carob tree and the Holy Virgin appeared to him in a dream, instructing him to build a church there. After removing a tree to make way for the church, he found gold coins in its roots which are said to have been used to finance the construction. Of course the historians have a different theory: that the church was built to outdo the bishop Walter Ophamil, who had ordered the construction of Palermo cathedral. Either way it’s a beautiful building and has a great view from the top.

The final attraction we visited was the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele, which is the third biggest opera house in Europe. It was falling into decay in the 70’s-90’s, as at that time the Mafia were siphoning money from the government and a lot of public infrastructure suffered. The theater is now back to its former glory, with beautiful paintings on the ceilings and the stereotypical big red theater curtains; it’s certainly worth a tour.

To leave Sicily we hopped on a big cruise ship overnight, and booked the finest room on the whole boat. Surprisingly it wasn’t much more expensive than booking just a chair. We had our own private quarters (the style is a little outdated, but it had beds, a bathroom and balcony to watch the sunset) and by luck were escorted there by the captain, when a bellboy got his bearings wrong. As the boat set sail I sat in the tub, taking full advantage of our comfortable setting.