Today we went on our first trip outside of our safe little zone. Palermo is on the other side of Sicily and is the capital of Sicily. I dont want to get too deep into the details about Palermo, so for more information about Palermo use this LINK.
We were looking forward to getting out and about. Since our car hasn’t arrived from its transatlantic shipment yet, we have been stuck in our little bubble. Although the little bubble luckily has lots of things to do including a very nice movie theater, bowling alley, gym, and a nice pool. Also we were finally getting fully adjusted to the 9 hour time change… The zombie feeling is pretty much gone!
The bus ride out to Palermo was about 2 hours and the scenery was amazing. Endless pastures and hills that were very difficult to capture with a picture because of how vast. We passed the town of Enna, which looked really cool perched on top of mountain range.
Monreale
More info on the duomo in Monreale: LINK
Palermo
Alright lets get to the chow…..In Palermo we had our first Gelato! Once we got past the awkwardness of ordering the gelato everything was good. The Italians are very different when it comes to ordering food and drinks at the bar (First a place called a bar is the same as a stateside coffee place with better food and alcohol available) As if the language barrier isn’t enough the customs are just different.
For instance when you order something at the bar like the pistachio gelato you would think that once you receive it you go and pay for it. But apparently this is not how things are done, as I stood there waiting to pay at the cash register with no response from anyone and my melting gelato. I followed the other Italians lead as they ordered and went and sat outside without paying.
In the States everything is very orderly in comparison as we order, pay, then receive our goods. But in Italy it is a confusing dance as there are no lines and no protocol on when to pay whatsoever… this is something odd, but something I can definitely get used to.
The gelato was very good. The biggest difference that I could tell between the Stateside pistachio gelato and here is that you can really taste the pistachio flavor. There are pieces of fresh pistachio in the gelato, which is not the case back in the States where you get a synthetic pistachio taste. The only con I would say is that it is very rich as Im sure that they use a higher ratio of fresh cream… next time we will order a smaller amount or combine it with brioche.
Jess is going to have more info about our trip to Palermo at geepgeep.com… including our trip to the catacombs. Also there are more pictures on the Flickr page that you can access from the homepage.
After leaving Palermo I was upset because I realized that I forgot to get the sandwhich that Palermo is known for, which is the Milza sandwhich (Splein Sandwhich) … I guess its good to leave something on the table for next time we make it out to Palermo.
