Siena Here We Come...

Wednesday, 30th June 2010

Our Easyjet plane arrived on time from Rome and made the return flight from Palermo to Rome on time and arrived at Fiumicino Airport on schedule. Pakdokter had arranged via the internet a transfer from Rome to Siena on an 8-seater Mercedes van. Roberto, our driver who met us at the airport was a handsome tall hunk with a bald head in a smart black suit, and could easily pass off as a bodyguard for Barack Obama.

Pakdokter's daughter, Raena, had flown in from Edinburgh that morning and had waited for us to arrive at the airport. Her Ryanair jet, however came in through the Ciampino airport. So she had to take the express bus to Stazione Termini in Central Rome and from there hop on to the express train to Fiumicino airport. For pakdokter and partner, it was so nice to meet up with our beloved daughter again, especially for this special occasion of pakdokter's partner's birthday as well as our wedding anniversary in two days time.

The road journey from Rome to Siena took slightly more than 3 hours. we left Rome at around 6 pm and checked into out Hotel Athena at about 915 pm. The long daylight hours of summer made us feel as if we had arrived in the afternoon. The hotel was good enough to anticipate our late arrival and had reserved a table for the group to have a somewhat late dinner.

our first Tuscan meal...

Raena had the Caprese as starter ( tomato and buffalo cheese)

pakdokter's partner had the Ribolita ( a Tuscan vegetable soup)..

Dollah and Sandra tried the lamd and rabbit...

pakdokter settled for a pasta...

After dinner, we decided to walk to the city centre just and what a surprise it was to see that the city was still buzzing with activity although it was nearly midnight. There was an orchestra performing tunes to which different groups of dancers were performing in a dance competition. All these events were part of the build-up to the Palio Festival whcih will take place on the 2nd of July.

the above are pictures of the Il Campo, the city square..

the city orchestra played classical music as well as dance tunes..

tango...

cha cha cha...

these young beauties from various precincts of Siena

were happy to pose for photographs...

they all took part in the team dance competition...

The Palermo Cathedral ...

Wednesday, 30th June 2010

The Catacombs was located at the fringe of the city and looked to pakdokter to be like in the poorer and older side of the city. Below were some of the pictures of buildings along the street which pakdokter managed to capture from inside the taxi.

On the way back we passed the Old Palace and stopped to visit the Cathedral of Palermo. On the site of this building, originally, was a Byzantine Basilica - built during the reign of the Eastern Roman Rulers whose capital was in Constantinople (current day Istanbul.) When the Arabs ruled Sicily, this building was converted into a mosque but after the Muslims were sacked by the Normandy Christians, it was re-converted into a church again. Not much of the Arabic features were left to be seen today...

The Catacombs of Palermo

Wednesday, 30th June 2010

Our last day in Sicily. Our Easyjet flight from Palermo to Rome was at 4.30 pm, so we had the whole morning to kill. Actually despite having been in Palermo for five days, there were still many more places we did not visit ( this pakdokter realised after coming home and reading more about Palermo!) because we had spent quite some time browsing through Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Geox, Prada and the other more 'current museums'.

We hired a local taxi and requested to be sent to the Catacombs of Palermo, situated quite a distance away from our hotel, as this was not covered during our horse-cart tour of the city. The catacomb turned out to be quite an experience. The visit to this underground labyrinth of an old church was like a horror movie experience. Skeletal remains in well-preserved costumes dating from 1850's stood in rows within recesses along the walls of the catacombs. There were skeletons of ordinary citizens, of the priests, of professionals like doctors and lawyers in their recognisable outfits as well as of convicted criminals who were executed by hanging. Our knowledge from the short forensic medicine posting in medical school helped us confirm this from the evidence of the broken neck bones. Of course the catacomb guardians had also left the noose which killed them at their necks!

One three year old girl was so well preserved that she looked as if she was just sleeping!

For many this visit would have been a very frightening experience. But for pakdokter and gang, we had been quite familiar with skeletal remains. In the first year at medical school, each of us had our own complete skeleton set. And pakdokter used to fall asleep in bed with pakdokter's own skeleton set after a long and tiring day trying to identify and memorise the different names of every little part of the human skeleton!

Photography was actually not allowed inside the catacomb. Pakdokter had downloaded some of the pictures below by googling out the Catacomb of Palermo.

Taormina, the loveliest town in Sicily...

Tuesday, 29th June 2010

From Mt Etna, our guide,Paulo, drove us to the coastal and hilltop town of Taormina. This is probably the prettiest town in the whole of Sicily and is also reputed to be the most expensive town on the island.

Paulo, our driver and guide on Tuesday...
we were dropped at one of the main gates into the city...

as in most of the towns we have visited thus far,

Taormina is also a town of narrow cobbled-stone lanes

lined by shops and restaurants..

behind one of the few cathedrals of the town,

the archeological excavations revealed

foundations from Greek and Roman times..

Arab and Muslim elements have to be searched out carefully..

the museum of the town..

several churches within the little hilltown...
the main tourist site of the town is the Greek Theatre.

below are some pictures of the Greek Theatre..

the Greek Theatre is located at one of the highest point of the town

and there are some vantage spots where one can view

the coastline and even the outline of mainland Italy...

we had been eating pastas almost every day...

so some decided to have a go at their pizzas for a change...

and over lunch we were serenaded by a local duet

who sang Italian classics like O Sole Mio etc...

too hot and thirsty?...

well this water fountain offers free cold water..

unshaven and tanned pakdokter after

5 days in hot and sunny Sicily.....