We rented a cab for the morning. We started out at the Catacombe dei Cappuccini, which has the mummified remains of over 800 Palermitans, including children; the last is a two year old girl in 1912. This was really eerie; the remains, sometimes with some flesh attached, are clothed and standing up or laying down, sometimes in glass cases and sometimes just on shelves. There are children and even babies mixed throughout. We saw the Capuchin Cemetary in Rome, and this one was even weirder.

A view down one of the corridors – its pretty spooky

A view of the Priest’s Passage

Rosalina, the last body placed in the Catacombe, embalmed in 1912

We got back in the cab and went to the Palazzo dei Normanni, which has the Capella Palatina and the current seat of the regional government. It turns out that Sicily has a special arrangement with the government in Rome – they have their own Parliment and a greater amount of self-government than other parts of Italy.

The Capella Palatina has wonderful mosaics on the outer colonnade and inside. Featured are mosaics of the saints.

A detail of the ceiling on the two side aisles of the Capella

The mosaics over the alter

We had to take a tour, in Italian, of the government rooms; tours are carefully watched now. We got to see the meeting room of the parliament, which has a modern electronic voting system. We also toured the other rooms of the palace. This tour took only about 30 minutes.

A wall painting in one of the waiting rooms

A wall painting of cherrubs and birds from a conference room

The ceiling and four sides of a tower in the parliment building

The ceiling and four sides of a tower in the parliment building

The ceiling and four sides of a tower in the parliment building

The ceiling and four sides of a tower in the parliment building

The ceiling and four sides of a tower in the parliment building

We strolled over to the Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti; this is a very old church with domes from the original mosque the church is based upon.

A niche near the cloisters

Here are the cliosters

The domes at Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti

Two kittens playing at the cloisters

We walked down to the Duomo. The Duomo in Palermo is a real mish-mash of architectural styles grown over time – many think its too diverse, but I think it looks cool.

A detail of one panel of the doors – the expulsion

A detail of the ceiling paintings in the Duomo

A detail of the two towers

A view to the alter in the Duomo

The doors at the end

The Facade of the Duomo

The reliquary in the Duomo

There’s a zodiac line mosaiced on the floor

We took off walking for lunch. And we walked. And walked. We asked for recommendations, and all the trattorias and restaurantes were closed! While walking, we passed four corners, the Quattro Canti, a famous intersection of two main streets in Palermo, Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda.

Two of the four similar facades at four corners

Two of the four similar facades at four corners

We finally had pizza at a little pizzaria at Piazza Bellini, where we got to go inside of Chiesa di Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio (also know as Chiesa della Martorana) and Chiesa di San Cataldo (we thought they were both closed). Chiesa di San Cataldo was built between 1154 and 1160. The church has a parallelepipedal outer structure. There are no decorations inside the church, and it has a nave and two aisles. The alter, which is the original, shows a cross and the symbols of the four Evangelists. The church has a very Arabic look, as Arabic laborers built it.

The facade of Chiesa di San Cataldo

The pizzeria called us a cab and we got back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner.