Going to Monreale, seeing the cathedral and the cloister a second time did not take away from the beauty of each site. I especially loved seeing the cloister again. Each pillar surrounding the center of the cloister had different mosaic patterns made up of different shapes and colors and every one of them was breathtaking. Another fun thing that I didn’t notice until this time around was how many lizards lived in the cloister. We all started seeing how many different colored ones we could find. The picture shows a few of my italian classmates in the search for some lizards.

 

That night in Erice, we met Maria Grammatico, who learned how to make marzipan when she lived in a convent, taught us how to make various desserts with grounded almonds. They were SO yummy and we ended up eating leftover marzipan for the rest of the trip. Maria was so kind and she and the rest of the people at the pasticceria made us the most amazing dinner!

After a good night sleep, we headed over to Capella Palatina. I actually had been there a year before but seeing it a second time did not take away from the beauty of the gold mosaics. This time, I was able to look at each image and understand what I was looking at since everyone in the group was assigned a mosaic to explain to the class. We got in trouble with a rude tour guide but we didn’t let her negative energy affect us.

We had an amazing lunch right after and had a local specialty, pasta alla Norma, a pasta dish with eggplants. It was so good that I probably had it 5 more times during the trip! What was really great about the lunch though was that the Latin class and the Italian class finally got a chance to intermingle. Here’s us at the restaurant, looking still a bit uncomfortable with each other (we all ended up getting really close by the end of the trip though!). heehee

After lunch, we had THE coolest part of the trip (in my opinion), which was the walking tour with Addiopizzo. We met individuals that were doing their part to fight against the mafia by not paying the pizzo (a tax that business owners are forced to pay by the mafia) and also individuals that were involved in organizing the movement. Amazing!

What people won’t tell you about the trip to Sicily is the actual trip to get to Sicily. For me, the airport security, travel time, uncomfortable sitting, and neck pains from sleeping in uncomfortable positions were balanced by the amazing company of my friends. While waiting for our flight in Boston, I drew exaggerated pictures of my classmates and Professor Gavioli. Some of my classmates were more happy than others with my depictions of them but Michael (in this photo) was not so happy (he’s the one with the red plaid shirt).

We all slept on the plane to try to prevent jet lag. We arrived at Palermo at 11:30am and were off to our first day in Sicily.