Straordinario – Chiara (Un giorno di sole straordinario, 2015)
11 Marzo 2018
“Andiamo insieme fino in capo al mondo… questo viaggio avrà un finale straordinario se viaggi con me”
Today was our first day in Palermo and due to jet-lag, I woke up just in time to catch part of the sunrise from the balcony of our hotel room, which by the way was very beautiful inside. Our day started off with a walk to the nearby pharmacy with Professoressa Gavioli and Giovanni.
One of our first stops of the day was the Chiesa di San Cataldo, which was one of the nicest churches I had ever seen, mainly because it was simple and yet very intricate in a certain way. Its Arabic-Norman structure makes it one of Sicily’s well known chiese. This church is one of Sicily’s many UNESCO World Heritage Sites, that was recently included on the list very recently! Another site to check off of my list of Italy’s UNESCO sites to visit.
Soon after our trip to San Cataldo and a coffee break at the cafe next to the chiesa, we walked to Santa Maria dello Spasimo, a building that was meant to be a church as can be seen by the high ceiling of what was the altar of the church, but was never finished. [Not pictured: The missing ceiling of the church] The space is now used as an open-air venue for musical and theatrical events, such as the moment captured on the Polaroid picture above: Promo poster for Dino and Frankie’s collaborative track, predicted to be the summer’s hottest track since ‘Despacito’.
We concluded our busy first day in Palermo by taking a tour with a member of Palermo’s Addiopizzo group, a group of activists dedicated to fighting against the mafia in a very interesting and effective manner while also protecting Sicilian shop owners from becoming victims of the mafia’s corrupt economic model. A ‘pizzo’ is a kind of tax that the mafia collects from shop owners all around Sicily, however this group is making sure that most shops are protected from the mafia after refusing the corrupt terms and conditions proposed by the mafia. Palermo’s main cathedral is another UNESCO World Heritage site that we got to check off of our list, #GoTeam! We also saw an Opera dei Pupi and once again… no puppies :(