I'm not sure why, but I wasn't expecting much from Palermo, Sicily. Of course, as a Francis Ford Coppola fan, “The Godfather” came to mind, but other than that, I had no pre-conceptions.
Julie's plan called for us to take a train to what was described as the nearby fishing village of Cefalu for the day.
When we debarked, we found horse drawn carriages offering tours of Palermo, and Julie surprised Amy and me by spontaneously suggesting we take a buggy ride through town to see the sites.
This one hour tour of Palermo proved to be one of the highlights of the trip for me.
Our guide spoke little English, and our Italian was even more limited, but he managed to communicate enough to direct us to hidden gems at our stops.
At our last stop proved to have points if interest in every direction, including a cathedral across the street with a rather lackluster exterior but gorgeous interior which we undoubtedly would have missed had our driver not insisted.
We returned to the coach and learned that our time was up, which left our driver at a rather convenient spot for picking up tourists, so perhaps his insistence that we see the church wasn't totally altruistic, but it was nonetheless a wonderful place to visit.
Our original deal called for him to drop us at the train station, but since we had taken too long, he offered the option of paying a little more or walking in the direction he pointed. We walked the rest of the way leading to what would be the second scariest part of our trip.
Julie's plan called for us to take a train to what was described as the nearby fishing village of Cefalu for the day.When we debarked, we found horse drawn carriages offering tours of Palermo, and Julie surprised Amy and me by spontaneously suggesting we take a buggy ride through town to see the sites.
This one hour tour of Palermo proved to be one of the highlights of the trip for me.
Our guide spoke little English, and our Italian was even more limited, but he managed to communicate enough to direct us to hidden gems at our stops.
At our last stop proved to have points if interest in every direction, including a cathedral across the street with a rather lackluster exterior but gorgeous interior which we undoubtedly would have missed had our driver not insisted.
We returned to the coach and learned that our time was up, which left our driver at a rather convenient spot for picking up tourists, so perhaps his insistence that we see the church wasn't totally altruistic, but it was nonetheless a wonderful place to visit.
Our original deal called for him to drop us at the train station, but since we had taken too long, he offered the option of paying a little more or walking in the direction he pointed. We walked the rest of the way leading to what would be the second scariest part of our trip.
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