We only had a few hours to spend in Palermo, waiting to catch the sleeper train back to Rome.

These are of the Palermo Cathedral – erected in 1185 by Walter Ophamil (or Walter of the Mill), the Anglo-Norman archbishop of Palermo and King William II’s minister, on the area of an earlier Byzantine basilica. By all accounts this earlier church was founded by St. Gregory and was later turned into a mosque by the Saracens after their conquest of the city in the 9th century. Ophamil is buried in a sarcophagus in the church’s crypt. The medieval edifice had a basilica plan with three apses, of which only some minor architectural elements survive today.

The upper orders of the corner towers were built between the 14th and the 15th centuries, while in the early Renaissance period the southern porch was added. The present neoclassical appearance dates from the work carried out over the two decades 1781 to 1801, and supervised by Ferdinando Fuga. During this period the great retable by Gagini, decorated with statues, friezes and reliefs, was destroyed and the sculptures moved to different parts of the basilica. Also by Fuga are the great dome emerging from the main body of the building, and the smaller domes covering the aisles’ ceilings.

We stopped here on our way back from Petralia. It was slightly more open!

Parrocchia S.Maria Maggiore – Chiesa Madre; from the Via Vittorio Emanuele.

There appeared to be no horizontal streets, only slopes everywhere.

Castello dei Ventimiglia. For further information look here.

How do you fancy this as your front door?

Chiesa di S. Stefano with its characteristic bell tower with polychrome CONCI. It is shaped like an irregular Greek cross and it was made in the first part of the 17th century. It preserves a prestigious wooden structure made by an unknown artist representing Saint Stephen (16th century) and a painting attributed to Giuseppe Salerno (1609).

We went to Petralia Soprana (high Petralia) as opposed to Petralia Sottana (low Petralia) because, at 3761 feet, it is the highest town in the Madonie. It was closed or so it seemed! It is said to be one of the finest preserved examples of a 17th century Sicilian town, developed in the Middle Ages.

Two views from the top.

Chiesa Madre – dedicated to Saint Peter and Paul.

The view from outside our room in the Villa Levante through an arch in the wall and showing the old town and the tower of Chiesa Parrocchia Maria Ss. Assunta.

A set of evening shots in Castelbuono.

Castello dei Ventimiglia dominates the old town. This was taken from a restaurant on the other side of Piazza Castello.

A ‘normal’ street on our way back to Villa Levante.

I can’t find a record of the name of this church on the via Roma, but it looked very pretty.

This longer shot of the Castello dei Ventimiglia was taken from via Isnello.

That weekend there was an art festival on. The pictures were created on the surface of the via Sant’Anna from rice and flowers and were being admired during “La Passegiata“.

Two small videos taken on the same day in the town square, Piazza Margherita. The first in the late morning and the second in the late evening.

Late morning in Castelbuono

late evening in Castelbuono

For the last few days in Sicily, we moved from our apartment in Mitogio to Villa Levante, an Azienda Agrituristica in Castelbuono.

I won’t say anything about the state of the roads except that we were both nervous wrecks by the time we got there!

This is the front of the villa which overlooks the old town.

This is the view from the Piazza Castello down the Via Sant’Anna.

View from ristorante ‘A Casitta’ where there is no written menu, but we had 9 separate antipasta and then the meat course.

This is the other side of the railway bridge from this posting.

Duomo of Novara di Sicilia.

Etna.