We woke at 7A and ate breakfast and showered and planned our day.

We had planned to take a bus tour to Erice, Trapani and Segesta, but we’re just tired of sitting in buses and cars so we canceled. Instead, we took a cab over to the Palazzo Abbezia in the Kalsa, or old Arabic, area. This houses the Regional Art Gallery of Sicily, which has a wonderful collection of medieval, gothic and late gothic Sicilian art.

A detail from the fresco

A famous marble bust of Eleanor of Aragon

A painting of a nun – I really liked this one

Fresco of four women

One of my favorites – Annunziata by Antonello de Messina

One of the most unusual Pietas I’ve ever seen

Painted wood from a church in Palermo

Paintings of two people

Part of the ceiling of the first room

Triumph of Death, a fresco from someplace in Palermo

We grabbed lunch as a trattoria in the neighborhood, and then walked to a few of the churchs in the Kalsa.

A figure of Christ in a glass case

A parade object sitting in a parking lot

Chiesa di San Domenico

Chiesa di Santa Maria della Catena

Chiesa di Santa Maria dello Spasimo

Chiesa di Santa Maria dello Spasimo

Chiesa di Santa Teresa della Kalsa

Chiesa di Santa Maria dello Spasimo

Chiesa di Santa Maria dello Spasimo is special because its both a very old church and also misses its roof – it was destroyed during World War II and never replaced. We listened briefly to a performance of motorcycles – I’m serious, someone was conducting motorcycle sounds.

All over the city were images by David LeChapelle, a famous photographer. However, I wonder how popular these are as the neighborhoods are very poor.

David LeChapelle’s image hanging outside in Palermo

David LeChapelle’s image hanging outside in Palermo

David LeChapelle’s image hanging outside in Palermo

We also saw some dogs:

• Strays that we felt very sorry about, including one that kept trying to get to the kitchen of the trattoria we ate lunch at (the owner put a bowl of milk out for the dog, but he was a very determined dog and kept trying to get to the meat)
• A man out with his three dogs, two poodles and a terrier
• A large black dog looking at us out his window

A man with three dogs

Dog in a window

Stray dogs on the street

We then walked to the main square and waited for a city sightseeing bus. They were, of course, very late, so we decided to ditch that, window shopped a bit (everything is closed on Sunday here), and went back to the hotel for a light meal and sleep.