Meng's Travels: Palermo Sicily Part 2

We were given an orientation tour on the first official day of the tour. Now I have a better perspective on how the city is laid out. The focal point of the city is the Quattro Canti or Four Corners. Everything radiates from this spot.

Buildings around Quattro Canti in a panoramic view

One of the four corners

Walking north a few blocks from this intersection is the No Mafia Museum. It is well known that the mafia started in Sicily and later spread to the United States. The Sicilian Mafia is a criminal organization that started out as a type of local protection and control over land and agriculture. It then evolved into drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes. Sicilians are not proud of their Mafia heritage. They don't like to talk about it. I heard about the No Mafia Museum from a YouTube show about Sicily. It piqued my interest. Admission is free but you can leave a donation.

Entrance to the No Mafia Museum

Sicilians are not proud of their ties to the Mafia

Inside the museum are stories about how the mafia was started and operated during its hey days of the 1960s' and 1970s'. There were a lot of black and white photographs of the key characters and crimes committed. The pictures were gruesome and bloody. It briefly mentioned how the mafia was expanded to include the United States.

Pictures of the mafia in the 1960s'

More bloody pictures

My next stop is the Chiesa di Santa Caterina, one of the best known churches in Palermo. It is not just the inside of this beautiful church that is popular but it is also famous for its Cannoli. Cannolis are a Sicilian pastry with a tube-shaped shell filled with sweet and creamy filling made with ricotta cheese (see picture below). I paid an entrance fee of €10 to see the inside of the beautiful church and the opportunity to climb to the rooftop.

The altar inside the church

A beautiful ceiling

One of the displays

The courtyard where people are enjoying their canolis

View of Piazza below

After the tour I waited in line to buy my cannoli. Many came just to buy the cannolis without going into the church.

Serving canolis

One of the best cannolis in Sicily

Sicilian puppetry has been around since the early 19th century. It is considered a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Across from the Palermo Cathedral is a puppet theater called Opera dei Pupi Teatro. It is also known as Teatro del Pupi Familia Argento or The Silver Theater. According to Google AI, Sicilian Puppetry was a popular pastime starting in the 1800s'. There were about two dozen of these puppet theaters all over Sicily but it's now down to about 5. We were lucky to go to a demonstration of the art and later attended one of the puppet shows in the evening.

Opera dei Pupi

Puppet master explaining the art of puppetry

Puppets on the wall

Puppet Warrior

Live Puppet Show

The next day we visited a small hilltop village about 1 1/2 hours away called Castelbuono. Besides its rich history its claim to fame today is their garbage-collecting donkeys. Seriously, it is actually famous for its medieval castle. The residents here choose to live in a small town rather than in a big city like Palermo. We get a chance to see how a small village survives in this environment.

Garbage-collecting donkey

Castelbuono or Good Castle

The medieval castle

Chapel inside the castle

A relaxing group of retirees

A grocery store

The Town Square

Artifacts inside the castle

On our official walk-around Palermo we went to another popular market in Palermo called Ballero. According to our guide it is not as touristy as Capo market which I went on my own on the first day. However, they sell similar stuff.