It might rain a bit this afternoon. Kathi slept in until 10:30, finally feels like she slept well --- yay! Leftover pizza for breakfast. After finishing our laundry, we went out for a long walking loop around Palermo. We started South West back towards Parco Piersanti Mattarella where we found a hop-on-hop-off bus and grabbed their map. We spent the day walking their combined routes and seeing ALL of their stops.
Got Granite Lemon and Orange Kathi got mixed berry. Then a bit later Chris got his Ragu Arancini and Kathi got a berry cream tart.
Walked a lot more past Giardino della Zisa, Catacombs, flower vendors, Porta Nuova, Norman Palace Garden, Villa Bonanno, Giardini Reali di Palermo, Comando Militare Esercito "Sicilia", Teatro Marmoreo, and Cathedral di Palermo. Then Kathi picked out a no-borders-project kitchen that had a fusion african italian cuisine. They opened at 8pm and we were there at 6, but they served us a fish and a meat and potato lasagna-like dish. Really very good.
While paying the bill, Chris talked to the African woman at the register and mentioned his trip to west africa. Turns out she was from Abdijan 8 years ago and was in Palermo going to school. We talked in broken English and some Italian about borders. She had a very bright smile and the conversation was so happy.
Then we walked back to Marquet and enjoyed the crowds on the way
home. Seeing some of the same sights again before it got dark was
nice. We felt just a few raindrops in the last 10 minutes walking
home and got back just in time to miss the evening rain.
Walking a bus tour route seeing Palermo sites
Where the living meet the dead. A mass grave for capuchin monks was established in 1534. In 1599, the site filled up, and they decided to expand. In the process of exhuming the bodies, they found the corpses were naturally mummified and well preserved. They took this as a sign from God (of course it wasn't the dryness of the grave site) and started displaying the exhumed mummies and mummifying more people and storing them underground here. They gradually accepted more and more people until in 1783 they started taking anyone. By 1800 there were thousands of wealthy citizens of Palermo and rich celebrities burried here as they could afford the generous donations required to obtain the mummification process. Just think, instead of your relatives visiting a headstone, they can see your mummified body on display in these catacombs! Joy!! They accepted bodies until 1880, and two more since: in 1911 they took the body of Giovanni Paterniti, Vice-Consul of the United States; and, in 1920 they took a two year old Rosalia Lombardo and today is known as the "world's most beautiful mummy".
The mummification process involves taking out the organs and packing the bodies with Bay Leaves then putting it into a dry environment where it can dessicate. Later they added a step where they bathed the body in arsenic solution before dessication.