October 15 - Monreale

 Today we rented a car for 1 week and we will be driving to Monreale.  It is just a short ways past Palermo - so a little over an hours drive.  Last time we were in Sicily we did not have time to go to the Monreale Cathedral which is famed for its mosaics.  Michael was a little nervous to be driving in Italy again - but it was like riding a bicycle - he was fine.

We found the parking lot to the Cathedral and old town with no problems.

To get to the Old Town and the Cathedral takes many stairs.  But first you have to run the gauntlet!  They are all covered with hawkers selling religious and other goods.  

Even after the steps - just walking up the hill - still more hawkers.

And in the piazza in front of the Cathedral - more hawkers!  This reminds me of Asia - everywhere you go there this scenario is true.  But we have not found it so in Cefalu. - even by the Cathedral.

It was close to 12 noon and we were nervous going to the Cathedral now - as it closed at 1pm.  But the ticket seller assured us that we could go into the Cathedral now - leave for the 1 hour it was closed and then come back again.

So we bought our tickets and went in.  The tickets included entrance to three areas.  The Cathedral, the Cloisters and the Cathedral attic.  The mosaics are the big draw here and they are in the Cathedral.  There is a lot of gold in the mosaics - it is a wonder they have not been plundered yet.

The ceiling is beautiful.  You can see the mosaics below - they are so far away that you can not see any detail.

The very front of the church.

A closeup of one of the mosaics.  

Pipes for the organ.

A little later an organist came in and played a few notes.  I was hoping that he would play a piece all the way through, but he did not.  I took this photo and the following ones from the nave on the right.  Their were a few openings into the main hall.

One of the decorations on the floor.

A shot of a section of the ceiling.

This scene is from the nave on the right.  

A closeup above the candle area.

A closeup of the mosaic in the main sanctuary.

A last shot before the Cathedral closes for its one hour lunch break.

 

Taking aim down the side of the Cathedral entrance before we headed off to find lunch.

The piazza in front of the Cathedral.

Of course there is a fountain.

As we searched for a restaurant for lunch we saw this lookout point down to the lower city.

After lunch we went back into the Cathedral and headed for the "attic".  As you wound you way up the stairs - there were rooms to the museum with relics, vestments and other religious displays.  I did not find them very interesting - But the views out the windows caught my photographic eye.  All the windows had mesh or netting over them.

View of the Cloisters.

View of the town.

Then we stepped outside and walked along the wall - see scaffolding below.

Michael on the walkway.

Next we entered a dimly lit tunnel - even I was afraid I would hit my head.  On this side their were occasional windows from which you could look down into the Cathedral itself.  The windows were dirty and bowed.

Michael taking a photo through one of the windows to the Cathedral.

Then we were outside again - walking up medieval steps even higher.

A view down to the Monreale harbor.

More views into the old town area.  Do you see the walkway (in red) starting in the lower right and going around to where the people are standing?  We walked on that instead of taking the last set of steps up to the bell tower.

The bell tower at the very top.  We skipped that as no one seemed to linger there.

And back across the walkway this time on the town side of the Cathedral.

This has to be a record of the most pigeons you can get on a statue prize.

And then we are back on the ground again - in the Cathedral.  What I didn't take pictures of were all the medieval steps.  On the way up you started with regular modern steps - until the very top levels.  then it turned into steep medieval stone steps.  What they didn't tell you was that the way down was all steep medieval style steps.  I tried to protect my right foot and ended up putting way too much weight on my left thigh.  

We left the Cathedral and went for some nourishment.  I wanted coke zero - but they didn't have any.  Then I saw "chocolate" on the menu.  I have experienced this before in Italy.  It can be very good, a cross between chocolate milk and pudding.  Yum!

Can you see how thick it is?  It was delicious.