Palermo

We arrived this morning at the Palermo train station with our million bags only slightly exhausted. We managed to get some sleep. I freaked myself out thinking I'd gotten my passport(s) stolen. Happily I was just farfing and Chris pulled my bacon out of the fry pan before I got too badly bent out of shape. I'd put the passports so deep into my little backpack that I didn't find them on the first or second check.

Anyway, my excellend friend Monica found us a van cab that agreed to take us to our hotel with all the bags for only 15E. Cheep at the price I say. The Hotel Ambasciatori is fabulous. They let us check in at 9am, thank God, as we were all feeling more than a little worse for wear. A quick shower and coffee on the fabulous top floor terrace had us all feeling much better.

We eventually wandered out in search of sustenance, which we found and enjoyed with some of the house red. At which point I mentioned that the last night of the opera was tonight. Long story short, we bought tickets, although we were almost refused on the grounds of our innapropriate apparel. We literally sprinted back to the hotel, did a quick change, and were greeted by "elegante" on our return. I would have to say that Die Tote Stadt is not that accessible when the sur titles are in Italian, the singing in German. It was very post modern in feel with a monochrome set of grey, black and white. We didn't make it past the intermission I'm afraid. It was still fabulous being in the Teatro Massimo.

On the way home we ate gelati whilst walking through what seemed to be an impromptu back alley rave - complete with dogs scavanging in the garbage. The evening ended with a glass of wine on the terrace.

Tomorrow- the gardens.