Palermo

Unlike Venice, everyone in Palermo has a car; and they know how to use the horn. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks are even more narrow, so foot traffic and auto traffic fight for space, and it is not uncommon to see people walking down the street because the sidewalks are overcrowded, or to see cars parked on the sidewalk, forcing more people to walk on the street. Crossing the street is like playing frogger on your last life. It's noisy, it's crowded, and it's filled with boistrous smiling people. The restaurants are filled with traditional Sicilian sea-food dishes and a tortellini soup that they assure you will cure any ailment. The architecture is a mix of Italian, Spanish, and North African influences and makes for an ecclectic view. The mountains that seem to rise directly out of the ocean make a fantastic setting. Our time here was brief, and it rained most of the time, so we didn't see as much as we would have liked, but we found it an interesting contrast to Venice, and the train ride from Palermo to Rome was spectacular! We rode along the Italian coast, only a few meters from the shore, watching the waves crash along the beach and the sun set over the crystal clear water. Since we were coming from an island to the main land via train, they actually drove the train onto a boat to cross the water and then back on the tracks and onto to Rome...

Palermo