Palermo, dinner at Carmelo's...

   Remember our friend Carmelo, who we met earlier in the trip?  He invited us to his house for dinner when we returned to Palermo at the end of our Sicilian holiday.  Arrangements were made, and since we now no longer had a car, Carmelo said he would pick us up at the Palazzo Pantaleo where we were staying at 8:45 pm on Wednesday night. We rested in the afternoon in preparation, knowing it would be a late night.

   Carmelo picked us up right on time and we drove to his apartment, only ten minutes away.  He was very excited to host us, saying it was the first time he and his wife Rosaria had hosted international guests.  And of course we were honored to be invited.  When we arrived, we met Rosaria and their two-year-old son Sergio.  They had also invited their friends Maglio and Alyssa, and their two-year-old Manfredi.  On the way over, Carmelo said the two boys together were like "ten devils", and he wasn't wrong. 

   Here is a picture of Carmelo holding Sergio in the red sweatshirt, and Maglio holding "Fredi" in the striped shirt...

    And Rosaria waving, with Alyssa, Maglio and Manfredi, and Chris at the table...

   Carmelo and Rosaria had prepared a multi-course feast for us.  They even prepared a two page menu, all in English for us... it was so sweet of them...

   The food was delicious, Carmelo and Rosaria outdid themselves.  And with having to get up from the table to prepare each course, and "look after" Sergio, it took quite a while.  After dinner, we looked at some of the Alfa Romeo models in Carmelo's collection.  Their friends left shortly before midnight, and Sergio was put to bed.  Then Carmelo brought out their wedding photo album, which was impressive.  They had quite a wedding.  Rosaria brought out her Valentino wedding dress to show us...

The album, 135 photos...

The Valentino dress...

And the classic Alfa Romeo...

   Then we watched their wedding video.  It was now 2am, and we suggested that it might be good if Carmelo took us back to the hotel.  We said our thankful goodbyes to Rosaria and off we went to our hotel, or so we thought.  Carmelo figured that since there was now little traffic, he would show us the historic sites of Palermo at night.  Forty-five minutes later he finally dropped us off, and it was 3am when we finally got to bed!  He and Rosaria were going to work the next day, don't know how they do it.  That was almost five days ago and we still haven't fully recovered. 

   We arose the next morning to sunshine and a great breakfast at Palazzo Pantaleo. 
     

    












We decided a daytime walking tour of the sites Carmelo had shown us at night was the order of the day, so off we went...

Click on or touch any photo to enlarge...