{"id":929,"date":"2017-01-06T12:22:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T16:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=929"},"modified":"2017-01-06T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T16:22:08","slug":"sicily-day-2-november-18-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=929","title":{"rendered":"Sicily, Day 2 November 18, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We awoke at\u00a09 AM! We were amazed by that until we realized that our bodies were on Connecticut time where it was 3 AM. \u00a0Last night, my cousin Giuseppe told us not to miss\u00a0the view from the rooftop breakfast room of our \u00a0hotel. Giuseppe\u00a0is a health inspector,\u00a0so he\u00a0is familiar with\u00a0every food-serving institution in\u00a0Palermo. He was so right! The view was fantastic! We\u00a0could see the entire panorama of Palermo, including the sea, the mountains, many ancient cathedrals,\u00a0and several apartment buildings whose dwellers were hanging \u00a0their laundry out to dry. The breakfast buffet included croissants\u00a0(both plain and filled), jams (pear, orange, and onion), cereals and granola with yogurt, eggs, \u00a0oranges, and fresh cakes including lemon and pear. There were also several meats that one would typically \u00a0find in an \u00a0antipasto including salami and mortadella. To top it all off, there were fill-them-yourself mini-cannoli. That’s because cannoli that are filled in advance get soggy. We\u00a0had a choice of either filling \u00a0mini-tubes \u00a0or topping mini-cones with with cannoli cream. \u00a0Of course, \u00a0coffee, cappuccino, a variety of teas, \u00a0and juices\u00a0were available.<\/p>\n

We indulged. After breakfast, we needed a nap! When we awoke, it was time for lunch. Being that this was not the tourist season, many \u00a0restaurants were closed, but we found a place\u00a0called\u00a0\u00a0Franco U’ Vastiddaru\u00a0<\/em>that featured traditional Sicilian food. Nick had a salad of oranges, anchovies, olives and onions, while I had arancini (small balls of fried rice \u00a0stuffed with\u00a0meat or cheese), panelle (chick pea fritters), and crocch\u00e8 (potato coquettes). My stomach began to tell me that perhaps so much fried food was not a good idea.<\/p>\n

As we were about to leave, several tables near\u00a0us were combined to make a large table for a group of students. They were very friendly! They wanted to know where we were from, and they were thrilled that I was of Palermitan ancestry.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The temperature was in the fifties and sixties every day. Rick Steves tells his tour-goers exactly what\u00a0to pack. Following his directions, we were very comfortable in light \u00a0jackets that fold up when they are not needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We walked to the Museo\u00a0A<\/em>rchaeologico Regionale<\/i>. A three storey building, two of the floors are being\u00a0renovated. However, \u00a0we had a docent on the first floor all to ourselves. She pointed out (In Italian, of course) \u00a0that \u00a0the sculptures always showed male dominance because the man \u00a0always had one foot atop the woman’s foot.<\/p>\n

On the way back to our hotel, we noticed an\u00a0open door with someone selling tickets just inside. We couldn’t believe the beauty of this building! \u00a0It\u00a0was the\u00a0Oratorio Santa Caterina\u00a0<\/em>d’Alessandra<\/i>. An oratorio \u00a0is\u00a0a private place of worship for a group or community which may\u00a0be opened to the public. The Oratorio of Saint Catherine is the seat of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, founded in 1099 during the Crusades. We were reminded of\u00a0Indiana Jones!<\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back at\u00a0our hotel, we had another nap. When we awoke, it was time for dinner. At Trattoria Il Maestro del Brodo<\/em>, Nick had \u00a0an antipasto of eggplant, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, fresh sardines in olive oil, salmon in olive oil, a stuffed fish we could not in identify, stuffed mushrooms, and grilled swordfish with a small salad. I had pasta in a sauce of\u00a0swordfish, shrimp, zucchini, capers, pignoli\u00a0nuts, and bread crumbs. After ending\u00a0our meal\u00a0with limoncello, we \u00a0enjoyed our leisurely walk back to our hotel.<\/p>\n

We took about 15,700 steps!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We awoke at\u00a09 AM! We were amazed by that until we realized that our bodies were on Connecticut time where it was 3 AM. \u00a0Last night, my cousin Giuseppe told us not to miss\u00a0the view from the rooftop breakfast room of our \u00a0hotel. Giuseppe\u00a0is a health inspector,\u00a0so he\u00a0is familiar with\u00a0every food-serving institution in\u00a0Palermo. He was … Continue reading Sicily, Day 2 November 18, 2016<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sicily-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}