Adventures & Misadventures Abroad: November 6

This is our second day with the same guide - Marko - in Palermo. We wanted a photography day, but you never know what the weather is going to be like and what a regular guide will understand about it. Marko has been a tourist guide since 1995, so he has more experience. I thought he did a pretty good job of reading what we liked and taking us to similar places. We had another very grey day.

This time we drove beyond the carpark after picking up Marko. Michael drove into Palermo to the central station and on to a car park. That was an interesting experience in itself. But after we started walking we saw this store. It used to be a photography store and now sells pot. We both loved the reference to Amsterdam.

The first thing Marko brought us to was a market. The vegetables and fruit were quite amazing.

There were a lot of amazing side streets with restaurants as well.

A lot of signs are a mixture of English and Italian. Mancia means to eat.

And on a side street - all the wooden boxes that the fruit and vegetables were brought into the market in.

Michael had problems with his camera. It is so easy to accidentally hit the wrong button and make things stop working like they should. It is almost always user error - which is ego busting.

The insides of a pumpkin.

We are in an area where a lot of street food is sold.

Our first sample was fresh squeezed blood orange juice and pomegranate juice.

And of course there is lots of pasta on offer. The one in the center - the rings - are a Palermo specialty. You don't see them anywhere else. We are bringing a package home.

We did laundry in Cefalu' and then had only clouds and rain. In Palermo we saw the solution, you just put plastic over the balconies to keep the rain off of your laundry, and leave it hanging out until it has dried. We don't have that much time, so we bring it in and hang it in the closets.

This sign is really confusing - which way do they really want you go go?

Street art has become a really big thing all over the world. But there are different levels. This is local.

I can't believe I went all the way to Sicily to taste prickly pear fruit. But that is what happened. It was not that flavorful and we were supposed to swallow the hard seeds! I could not do it.

Would you go to a bar called Tinky Winky?

We have been wanting to try arancini, a specialty of Sicily. These are deep fried balls filled with rice and other flavorings. This restaurant selling street food was the best per our guide. They were very good. I got one filled with rice and 4 cheeses. Michael got the original which is filled with rice and a meat sauce. In the store they had altered pictures to show famous paintings with arancini.

Then Marko asked us if we liked sweet things - of course I said yes - so he went to buy us cannoli which were huge - way too much for me. But they were very tasty.

So many different kinds of arancini to try!

Another market.

Another symbol of Palermo is the guy above. He wears a crown but is not a king. A snake is sucking the blood out of him - this symbolizes all the different countries that conquered Sicily and destroyed the Sicilian way of life.

Then Marko said he was going to take us to the most terrible place in Palermo. And this is where he took us. It used to be one of the most vibrant places in the city, but somehow it has never been renovated. He seemed to have a great sadness about this state of affairs. A lot of it had to do with the Mafia and their still heavy influence in Sicily.

Palermo was badly bombed during World War II. The contrast in what has been redone and what is still waiting to be redone is drastic. There can be three buildings in a row. The outside two look nice, but the one in the middle still is in ruins.

Most of Europe and of Sicily as well have been fully restored. Not so in Palermo. I think it has something to do with the way laws are constructed here. The original owners of buildings may have moved out of Sicily after the war. Ownership of buildings is in limbo until the government can figure it out. Also when you restore a building it has to be done historically correctly. And all the buildings are in a historic district which has high tax rates.

Sicily seems to be stuck on Australian plant life. They have a lot of parks that have many plants from Australia. I think this is called the Ficus tree. According to Marko, this is the largest Ficus tree in all of Europe.

The trees are interesting in that they put down roots from the branches. They grow down to the ground and become supports for the branches of the tree.

Then we stumbled upon this - a cart honoring tone of the female saints. They parade this float on holidays that honor her. I believe this one is dedicate to Santa Rosalia.

Another weird sign. I think it means that if you park directly under this sign - your car will be towed away, especially if you are going the wrong way on a one way street.

Then we chanced upon a street the government has designated for professional street art. They are attempting to make the area more appealing.

This mural is packed with Sicilian historic symbols.

There are some interesting street food items that we have seen, but not tasted. One of the specialties that we had passed up earlier was intestines wrapped around a skewer of leeks. Another one was spleen in some kind of sandwich. This place was the best for spleen sandwiches and the last chance - for Michael. There was no way I would eat it.