Saturday – May 3, 2025
Today’s featured image is of the ceiling and wall of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova in the town of Monreale. Work was begun on the cathedral in 1174 and it was modified and updated several times over the centuries following. At that time only the elite were educated and could read. To communicate the Bible to the masses the stories were depicted on the walls of this church. You’ll see a few of them in this photo. You’ll also notice the extensive use of gold to decorate – as shown also in this photo.
In addition to a “City Tour” excursion today our primary objectives were 1) to find ATM’s to obtain Euros with which to tip our cabin stewards and wait staff in the restaurant and 2) to purchase a piece of luggage for all that would not fit in the bags we brought with us. Since our tour group was scheduled to leave fairly early we thought we should have enough time to accomplish those 2 objectives.
We boarded our tour bus and headed for the town of Monreale. Our tour guide informed us that very recently 3 young boys had been gunned down in that town and the bishop of Sicily had declared the town in a state of mourning. She said the church would have flowers and those would be from the funerals that had just been held for the boys. She did not know why the boys were killed. My first thought was “Isn’t Sicily the birthplace of the Mafia? Could this have been a mob hit?”.
My position in the bus was at the rear (as it usually was – don’t know why we always ended up at the back). The window next to my row and the row behind me was covered with moisture so I could not photograph or view whatever we were passing. Kelsey was able to take video on the other side so there are a few videos as we drove through the street of Palermo.
After a short ride into the hills of Sicily we arrived at a parking lot, exited the bus and began the climb up a staircase to the square near the cathedral. It was early in the morning, so vendors were busy setting up their shops along the path. You’ll see video of those outdoor shops as we walked back to the bus from the hilltop where the cathedral is located. Some of our group chose to pay for taxi rides to the top rather than climb all the stairs. By the time we reached the top I would have considered doing that.
In today’s media you’ll see a couple photos taken from the Piazza Guglielmo II on the West (including a selfie) and a couple from Piazza Vitorio Emanuele on the North. Our group was one of the first to arrive at the cathedral but there was already a line of visitors waiting to enter when we arrived. After 15-20 minutes we were allowed in through 2 large brass doors. The inside of the cathedral was covered with mosaics as explained above. The link above gives the architectural details of the cathedral as well as some additional photos of the interior decorations. I was struck by the amount of time and wealth that had been spent to create this structure.
After approximately 20 minutes inside the cathedral we left the church and walked down the hill to the parking lot. You’ll see a couple short videos which show some of that area and include the vendors on the street and steps. When we returned to the bus both myself and the folks behind me asked our guide if the window could be cleared so we could see. No action was taken in response to our request.
We drove back to Palermo and were told that the remainder of the city tour would be on foot and that we could leave things on the bus we might not want for the walk. In our case, that included one of our backpacks which had my wallet in it. When exiting the bus, I asked the guide if we would have the opportunity to shop before ending the tour. I didn’t get a clear answer from her so I asked if I could remain with the bus (so I could look for an ATM and a suitcase). She turned away and the bus drove off with my wallet on it. We began walking and stopped at the Palermo Cathedral.
I did not get any photos at this cathedral – I was more concerned with finding the bus and my wallet. The group began walking again – to another church – Church of the Gesu. Along the way we “lost” several of the group members – this did not seem to concern our guide. Didn’t take any photos there either but I asked the guide where the bus would be waiting for us. Apparently she didn’t understand. I was directed to another guide who told me where to find the bus and started off on my own to go there. It was approximately 11:00 am and I was headed to the intersection of Via Roma and Via Giovanni da Procida. As I walked away the guide shouted Pitta Rossa. I had no idea what that meant.
When I arrived at Via Roma I saw the missing members of our excursion group. They had found another tour group and asked where to locate the bus. I noticed there was no bus here and they informed me the bus would not be coming until 12:45 – about an hour from now. So, no wallet, no bus, no way to get anything out of an ATM or pay for a suitcase. This was the best excursion ever!
I looked around to see if I might find a store that sold luggage and noticed the name of the store behind me was Pitta Rossa – now it made sense what the guide had shouted. Pitta Rossa is a shoe store, but they also sell….luggage! I went inside and saw many carry-on pieces of luggage on display but no larger bags. As I walked through the store I found a dark gray larger bag that was on sale for 50% off. The discounted price was 65 Euros. The brand was Romeo Gigli and all the tags and literature were in Italian, so I wasn’t sure what features it had. I had nothing to do now but to look for an ATM, so I went outside and went a block East and a block West without finding an ATM. I decided the best thing to do would be just to wait for the bus.
Buses started arriving but no bus for group 6 (our excursion group). All the others with lower numbers were taking the same tour – they just left at 5-minute intervals before or after ours (there were 39 city tour groups in all). Around 12:30 I saw the bus for group 6 pull up down the street and walked to it. The driver let me board and I went to the backpack and got my wallet. As I was getting my VISA credit card to call and request a PIN so we could use the card at an ATM, Jan and Kelsey boarded. The tour group had finished a few minutes early. Kelsey had a couple photos from a piazza they saw on the way to the bus. Those photos are included in today’s media.
I told them about my luggage “find” and the 3 of us went to the shop to buy the suitcase. The clerk did not speak any English. Inside the suitcase was a card that explained how to set the lock. We tried to find someone in the shop who could explain it to us but none of the personnel spoke English. We decided that someone on the ship would be able to interpret the card for us, so we bought the suitcase and left to find an ATM – me carrying an empty full-size suitcase (didn’t want to chance damaging the wheels by running them on the sidewalks and streets). There is a photo that shows Pitta Rossa’s location in relation to Magnifica.
We looked at the Maps app on our phones to locate ATMs. There was one a couple blocks West of our location. We walked there but it looked like we had found an off-track betting parlor. We went inside and the man showed us the location of the machine – it was just next door. I got out my MasterCard, tapped for it to be read, entered the PIN, selected 400 as the amount of Euros to withdraw and was presented with a message on the screen saying this machine did not support touchless transactions. I tried the sequence over inserting the card and the machine said we must use touchless. So much for the MasterCard. I inserted our Discover card, entered the PIN, selected 400 Euros and was cleared to receive the cash. As soon as the cash appeared so did a man on the street asking for money. He didn’t speak English either as we tried to explain this was a withdrawal for the people who had been helping us on our trip. Jan had some Euro coins in her purse and gave him some of those. He seemed satisfied and walked away.
We couldn’t use the Discover card again until tomorrow so we continued walking and looking for other ATM’s that would accept our MasterCard. Consulting our phones we were directed to a Barclay’s Bank location 4 or 5 blocks to the West. We walked there and found an apartment building but no bank. Jan found someone who spoke English – they explained that the bank was a little farther down the street. By this time dragging the new suitcase (even though it was empty) was becoming uncomfortable. The bank was on the other side of Via Roma so we crossed the street, entered the bank and were hoping we might actually be able to deal with a teller. The lobby was open, but it was Saturday and there were no tellers. We tried the MasterCard and again got the “…touchless not supported” message.
Next to the bank was a department store. I went inside to see if someone could direct us to a bank with tellers. First problem was finding someone who understood English. When I told them I wanted to get Euros using a credit card they thought I was asking if we could buy merchandise using either Euros or a credit card. Finally, I found someone who understood what I was asking. They told me to go to the bank next door (where we had just been). This line of inquiry was getting us nowhere.
We stopped at another department store where the clerk did understand what we were trying to do, and he explained that no banks were open on the weekend with tellers – all we would find would be ATM’s. We decided we would try our luck with ATM’s on Sunday when on excursion in Rome. We asked for directions to the dock where Magnifica was berthed – it was about a mile away.
Off we went crossing some busy streets suitcase in hand. My power level was about to zero by the time we arrived at the security point on the ship, but we had been successful fulfilling 1 of our 2 primary objectives – we now had a suitcase that would easily hold the stuff that wouldn’t fit in the other suitcases. We went to guest services looking for someone to translate the lock instructions for the new suitcase and were successful.
There are a couple photos of selections from this evening’s menu and one of a fish at the entrance to the restaurant. The fish head and tail are there but I believe the passengers must have eaten everything between them.
At the theatre we met David and Sandra and Karen prior to the show. The show this evening was a celebration of the crew and a thank you to all the passengers. Many of those passengers would be disembarking in Rome tomorrow (including Karen, Jeff, Leo and Mike from our table). The show began with a performance by the Beatle impersonators we had seen earlier in the week and ended with the cast and crew singing a modified chorus from “Hey Jude”. We stayed to talk with David, Sandra and Karen – that would be the last time we saw them on this voyage.
The day ended with us hoping we would be successful finding a cooperative ATM in Rome on Sunday.
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