Italy Day 5 - Rome Day 4/ Palermo Day 1 (Sun., 9/8/13)

On Sunday we had breakfast in the hotel then met our driver for the trip to the airport. Dennis had reserved a car even though everyone says driving in Palermo is hazardous to your health. We couldn't check in until 2 p.m., so we drove over to Trapani at the west tip of Sicily. We didn't look it up to see what Trapani has to offer tourists, so we missed the Museum of Salt and a few other sights. However, we did drive UP to Erice, an ancient stone castle that now houses quaint shops, bakeries and restaurants. If you look it up in Wikipedia, you'll find Erice has an ancient history and diverse culture. The road up to Erice was way scary. Poor Dennis--his first driving experience was twisty-turny narrow roads with a mountain on one side and steep cliffs on the other. We later found out that there is a tram from Trapani up to Erice. 

Erice was a fun and interesting place to visit. We did a little shopping and had lunch at the top. We also hit the bakery while we were at it. At one shop I asked the clerk about a jar of ficudinnia jam. Then we got into how it's pronounced. The previous is the spelling and pronunciation in Sicily. Figo da India is how they say it in mainland Italy. Dennis and I have a running argument about the way we say it and the way the girls in the shop said it. I say it's close enough. End of discussion.

We found out there is an easier road to take on the way down, so we took it. Whew! On the way home we drove through Valderice at the foothills of Erice. This was where my Uncle John grew up. We didn't know the address or location of his house, but we got a flavor of the place by driving through.

After that we drove back to Palermo and found our hotel, the Mercure Palermo Centro, the key being "Centro," right in the middle of everything. When we got there, I went in to see where the parking lot was for the hotel. Ha. They said it was closed for the night. What? They the clerk told us to find a parking space on the street for the night. Anywhere in the "blue lines." Dennis left me on the street and drove around looking for a parking space. Palermo parking is something else. We had to find a blue line space while everyone else in Palermo was parking every which way and wherever. Eventually, Dennis came rolling all our stuff by himself until I caught up with him. I still don't understand why he didn't leave the suitcases with me on the street or take me with him to help moving them to the hotel. Oh, well, it got done, but we were not happy. The parking lot reopened at 8 o'clock, so we Dennis went down (we're on the 7th floor) and moved the car to the parking lot. 

The car, by the way, is a Citroen Diesel. It has served very well so far, even though Dennis had to learn how to use a six-shift manual transmission.