John is down

Our original plan for Sunday was to go to Monte Pellegrino. A good activity for Sunday when many things shut down in Palermo. I was concerned about the weather, as we might be heading into yet another cloud, which soon became irrelevant after breakfast -- John felt awful and had a fever. We ended up spending the whole day in our room, John resting, me reworking our travel plans.

We decided to cut our Palermo program short, but not without a requisite visit to the spectacular Monreale. The locals have a saying -- to come to Palermo without going to Monreale is like coming as a donkey leaving as an arse, not something we want be guilty of, even when one is as sick as a dog.

The town of Monreale sits above Palermo to the west; 30 minutes by local bus. This is the view back to Palermo.


The interior of Monreale Cathedral is covered with 12th-century mosaics.








The mosaic repairman stepped aside for a moment.


Adjacent is the cloister with finely carved capitals and columns. This is a view from the cloister to the side of the cathedral.








Here's John feeling very lousy, taking photos of the cloister's corner fountain.


And on the walk back to our hotel we passed Fontana Pretoria for the final time.