Corpses and Theater

We slept better then the previous night, but I was still up about three times with little coughing fits. At least I didn’t wake up completely tired. We began the day by walking towards the Catacombe dei Cappuccini. We found it to be another absolutely gorgeous spring like day with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky. Without the wind blowing, it was pleasant enough to shed the jackets. Of course on the way I dragged Tom to another geocache near the Teatro Massimo (the opera house) and found it right away.

After about a 40 minute walk we arrived at the catacombs. So what are the catacombs? It is a place where there are approximately 8,000 corpses that are preserved in period dress and in various states of bodily decay. It was an interesting sight for sure, but not one that we were allowed to take pictures of. Check out their website for more details: http://www.palermocatacombs.com/

It didn’t take long to walk through the corridors of the catacombs and we were soon making the walk back towards the city center. We stopped outside Palermo’s Cathedral to sit in the sun and look in our guide book/Google for a place to eat lunch, as we were going to meet up with Alissa. Tom found a place and we walked towards it, to find that it was in the shade (which was quite a bit cooler) and no in-door seating, so we kept walking to the Teatro Massimo where we decided we would meet Alissa. As we waited for her we watched families and kids dressed up in halloween type costumes throw confetti at each other. There was confetti all over the streets of Palermo. We asked Alissa what that was all about and she said she thought it was to celebrate Carnivale.

Alissa agreed we should find a place to eat in the sun, but since most of the restaurants looked to be in the shade she took us down a street we had not yet been, and found many restaurants. She had picked a place her friends had talked about, but she had never been. It was an excellent choice! I enjoyed an Italian burger and Tom had a sandwich with prosciutto, mozzarella, and mushrooms, and Alissa had a Western burger that had eggplant on it. Once again I appeared to have made the best choice. I thought my burger was excellent, although the other two said theirs were good . . . but maybe not as good as mine.

After lunch we decided to take a tour of the inside of the Teatro Massimo. It’s the third largest opera house in Europe. We had to wait about 45 minutes for the next tour to start so we just hung out and Tom showed Alissa some things with the camera. The opera house was impressive and there happened to be a rehearsal taking place so we got a feel of what a show might be like. The tour was only supposed to be about 30 minutes, but it ended up being 45 so once it was over Alissa had to go to make her bus and train connections. We walked with her, but soon came to the realization there was no way she was going to make it. So we slowed our pace down and walked with her all the way to the train station (since it was pointless to now take the bus to the train station). At the train station we had a bit of time to kill before the next train, so we ordered shakes from the McDonald’s that was attached and before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes.

Tom and I took our time walking back to our hotel, again commenting on all the confetti all over the streets and of all the little kids dressed up. We were pretty tired from all the walking, so we just went back to the hotel where I reserved a rental car that we could pick up tomorrow to continue our tour of the island.

Stats of the Day

Geocaches Found: 1
Steps Walked: 20,457
Temperature: 57 degrees felt like awesome
Times Coughed: Less then yesterday???