Mehfalù

On my last day in Sicily, I decided to make the trek out to the town of Cefalù, about an hour by train. According to the internet, Cefalù was a cute town, with a nice beach and, of course, the last of the great Arab-Norman edifices in the region. Unfortunately, the weather was grey with occasional showers, so that ruled out the beach, and the Cefalù cathedral is definitely the least impressive of the buildings I saw. It looked pretty bare online, but I thought it might have hidden treasures. But, yeah, most of it is plain, with really just the apse covered in mosaics. After the splendours of Monreale and the Palatine Chapel, it was a bit of a let down. The outside is pretty, though. 

The famous Christ Pantocrator

 I didn't stay inside too long, there just wasn't that much to see. So I headed next door for more cloisters. Again, these were slightly disappointing after the beautiful Monreale cloisters. What there was to see in the cloisters was nice enough, but only half of the pillars survive. Even worse, the other half were destroyed during World War II. That sort of thing particularly gets my goat. It's one thing if something fell into ruins back in the 15th century or something, and another thing entirely when you think it survived some 800 years only to be destroyed so recently. As frustrating as this is, on the bright side, there has been a lot of restoration work carried out in recent years, and as part of this project, you can look online to see detailed photos and explanations of all the capitals. Since I couldn't remember what all the carvings meant, this is what I did for the photos below.

"Capital with acrobats"

"Capital with fabulous creatures and birds of prey'

"Capital with griffin, lizard and lion". I assume this toothy fellow is the lizard, enjoying a bite of lion bum

Since the weather wasn't nice enough to go to the beach or sit outside, and I was getting a bit too tired to wander around the city or look in the many small shops, I caught the train back to Palermo and pretty much just sat around (thankfully, it wasn't raining there) until it was time to get the bus to the airport. The last day of any trip is often a bit tricky - either you have to get to the airport at a time that doesn't really allow for sightseeing, or you end up hanging about uselessly with no hotel room to retreat to. I had left my suitcase at the train station for convenience, so at least I didn't have that worry, but it was a bit of a flat end to what was an overall lovely trip.

Outside the Martorana

Some extra photos of the "fountain of shame" I didn't have space for before

So voilà, that was Sicily! I really enjoyed it! It's a big island, so this definitely made me think I'd like to come back and see more of it, from the ancient temples and Roman villas, to Mt Etna to the Aeolian islands. It wasn't nearly as daunting as I'd been led to believe, and although you'll meet more non-English speakers than in, say, Rome, I didn't have any particular communication problems and got around to all the sights on foot, by bus and by train with no issues. A good reminder that there is still a "brave" solo traveller hiding inside!

Is this the Monreale life? Is this just fantasy?

You know who loves massive, gaudy, ostentatious displays of gold? In honour (choke) of the stumpy-digited madman, here's another of Sicily's bling-tastic sites. Except this one manages to be tasteful, a word Trump wouldn't know if he tripped over it.

Monreale Cathedral, the second of the great Arab-Norman sites I visited in Sicily, is located in a suburb of Palermo about 20 minutes away from the centre. Getting there took a bit of research online and some wandering around the Piazza Indipendenza (outside the Norman Palace), but was otherwise straightforward. The larger scale (102x40 metres) makes it harder to see and to photograph the mosaics than in the Palatine Chapel, which is my overall favourite, but the incredible number and quality of mosaics is still unforgettable.

The history of the church in Monreale goes back to the Arab invasion of Sicily in the 9th century. The Arabs converted the Palermo Cathedral into a mosque and exiled the Bishop, who settled nearby on the hill of Monreale, overlooking Palermo, where a small church was built. The Normans conquered Palermo in 1072 and re-consecrated the cathedral. However, the story of the exile to Monreale was not forgotten, and in 1174 King William II ordered a new cathedral to be built in Monreale. Amazingly, the cathedral was consecrated in 1182. I don't know how the Normans managed to move so fast on these things, considering all the cathedrals you hear of taking hundreds of years to complete.

The interior consists of elegant columns, an elaborate wood and mosaic roof, patterned marble floors and walls, and most importantly, more than 6500 square metres of glass mosaics which mostly depict Biblical scenes and figures.

The relatively plain cathedral façade

One of the side entrance towers

Christ Pantocrator

The back wall 

I suppose this is Lazarus? Quite the belly, anyway

Ornate Baroque chapel. This is in a roped-off section you have to pay to get in to

Chapel ceiling

The inlaid marble floor

William II, founder of the cathedral, offers the building to the Virgin Mary

Noah's Ark

Top: Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden of Eden. Bottom: Rebekah giving water to the camels

St. Peter

Cloistered away

So far, the Palermo trip has been church-heavy, I know. Good news! It's going to continue to be pretty much just as church-heavy, because that's basically what I did in Palermo. Luckily enough, they are gorgeous and amazing churches, but I know probably not everyone's idea of a rocking holiday time.

To break up the churches a bit here's something... church-adjacent (literally and figuratively). The cloisters of the cathedral of Monreale date back to 1200, originally part of a Benedictine abbey attached to the cathedral. They are made up of 108 pairs of columns, with alternate pairs covered in beautiful mosaics and each column boasting a carved capital, many of which show Biblical and other scenes.

You need to pay separately to go in to the cloisters (I thought it was included with the roof ticket, which it's not), but the extra 6€ or so is well worth it. The Arab influence can be clearly felt, with the central garden complete with palm trees and corner fountain/cistern.

The cloister as seen from the cathedral roof

The Monreale cathedral seen from the cloisters

The bright sun made it hard to photograph at times

One of the elaborately-carved capitals

Crocodile attack!

Not sure, but looks like this could be Cain and Abel on the left

 Dog attack and two knights

 The corners featured these amazing columns carved all the way round

 

Animal carvings on the columns

The corner fountain