Firstly, it wasn’t garbage night last night. There were no noisy garbage trucks during the night and this morning there were still huge and growing piles of rubbish. This doesn’t help to make the city attractive. In fact, I so far have found this to be a very unbeautiful city. Yes, I realise that isn’t a word but I don’t want to use the “U” word.

We are literally only 40 steps from the Quattro Canti.

This is a small square that has ornate statues and inscriptions on each corner, relating to the four ancient city’s neighbourhoods and the city’s four rivers. Some of the streets around this corner are blocked off to turn the main streets into pedestrian only access.

The policeman on the bike was just one of hundreds we saw today. And, I’m not exaggerating. We found out that today is Italy’s day to celebrate police and there were busloads of them around the Palazzo Reale – the location of the Royal Palace where today the Sicilian Regional Assembly sits.

Our goal for today was to find the open air market place in Ballarò.

Luckily Mick had the map to guide us. Here he is stopped out the front of the Piazza Pretoria. Every time we walk past this piazza there are lots of people there taking photos of the statues around the fountain. I haven’t included any photos because they were all nude. 😇

Not the tourists, but the statues.

The map turned out to be only so useful, but to my great pleasure, my (limited) Italian helped us find the location. To be fair, the markets were spread through dozens of streets which did add to the degree of difficulty for Mick’s Map Reading 101.

Our senses were over extended. There was lots to see and at times we got an earful from an eager vender as he yelled out about his produce.

Not the super happy man with the fabulous hairdo in this photo.

Mick was on the search for meat. But the fish looked amazing.

Kath did a superb job at navigating the uneven pavements and the frequent motor bikes that wizzed by us.

Once we finished our tour of the most ancient markets in Palermo, founded by the Arabs, we walked to the central railway station for morning tea. I was keen to find out where our bus leaves from on Saturday when we head to Siracusa. Once we did that we bought a cappuccino each. I had read that you should not order these in Italy, and now we know why. It will be my last one in Sicily. All froth!!

We then caught the free shuttle bus from the station and took in the sites of the old town. This is where we spotted the huge numbers of police.

The bus took us to the marina and through some skinny streets which amazed us that we could get through.

Sadly, because of the Police Day, the shuttle bus did not take us back to our accommodation as we’d expected it to, so we had to walk back. Kath led the pace and we were lucky to keep up with her.

After a snack lunch at home, Mick and I headed off to find a Tourist Office (that was open). Kath decided to rest.

Our walks took us past the Teatro Massimo.

We now have a few ideas about what to do during our next few days.

Our plan for tomorrow is to catch the train to Cefalù.

We dined on spaghetti at home with a bottle of Montepulciano D’Abruzzo which we bought for €1.49 at LIDL.

Bellissimo.