Palermo, a chaotic arrival...

   Our last two days in Sicily would be spent in Palermo, an easy one-hour drive from Cefalu.  The plan was to drive to our hotel... Palazzo Pantaleo in the heart of the city... unload our luggage and clean out the car... then return it to the in-town Hertz drop-off location.  All went fine until we hit Palermo traffic.  Calling it traffic is flattering it... it's more like a circus gone wild, like Grand Theft Auto on human growth hormone.  Every form of vehicle... cars, trucks, scooters, buses, and yes, even men on horses, come at you from all angles, seemingly all at once. If Sicily is controlled chaos, then Palermo is uncontrolled chaos.  Sorry no pictures, but as an example of the craziness, we can share this video of two people on a scooter, leapfrogging traffic by driving on the sidewalk.  If you pause the video at 3-4 seconds, you can see the passenger is using her phone... and why wouldn't she?

   www.youtube.com/watch?v=z05Tl-kKhUY

   We arrived at the hotel unscathed, but with our nerves in a knot.  With the very kind help of Giuseppe, the owner of the Palazzo, we got our bags up to our room, took a deep breath, and prepared to drive the car to the Hertz drop-off point.  It was only a few blocks away, but since Palermo has a crazy labyrinth of one-way streets, we had to drive quite a distance to finally spiral ourselves to Hertz.  It was on a narrow one-way street, there was no parking, so we had to double park.  That left just enough room, by a couple of inches, for other traffic to move through.  We quickly got the Hertz attendant out to check the car over... no scratches.  When we mentioned that we had driven all over Sicily for eight weeks and didn't put a scratch on the car, he said... "you are very lucky".  I guess he's right.

   It was about one o'clock by now, and the Hertz guys recommended a good restaurant in the area.  We were so happy not to be in that traffic!  We had a very nice, long lunch, with ample wine to help calm nerves.  After lunch we strolled back to Palazzo Pantaleo along Palermo's most upscale street, via della Liberta', with its Gucci, Prada, and Rolex stores and classy villas.

   The Palazzo is in a private courtyard.  Here is a view of our room from the courtyard...

   The room had 12-foot ceilings and a Murano glass chandelier...

   We had an invitation to have dinner at the home of our friend Carmelo... (remember Carmelo, with the white 1966 Alfa Romeo?).  He was to pick us up at the Palazzo at 8:45, which is late for us.  We knew it would be a late night, so we rested that afternoon in preparation. 

   Little did we know what was in store...

   Click on or touch the photos to enlarge...