This late 19th Century church was closed when I was previously in Palermo. From the outside it doesn’t look noteworthy, especially in a city with some magnificent and ancient churches. But it is highly unusual.
Holy Cross is Anglican and its priest told me that, not so long ago, fervid Sicilian Catholics would cross to the other side of the street to avoid the Protestant heretics. Mind you, they had be really, really fervid.
Built in 1875, Holy Cross served the then substantial British merchant community. And there’s something else about this church that’s interesting.
In 1943, Canadian, British and American forces invaded Sicily. This memorial in the nave is to the 48th Highlanders of Canada, a Toronto regiment.
However, a plaque in memory of Americans who fell in Sicily is particularly intriguing. The plaque was made from a propeller that had been melted down and ‘From Their General’ is from the controversial George Patton. He attended this church after the successful island campaign.
Some readers may remember it was on Sicily that General Patton slapped two shellshocked American soldiers calling them ‘cowards’. He was later forced to apologize.
Compared to when I was first in Italy, Palermo, once a mafia battleground, becomes ever more pleasant to visit. Millions of euros confiscated from organized crime have gone into urban regeneration. At least in the centre, it’s a wonderful city to stroll in and I find myself at the Fontana della Vergogna, sometimes called the Fontana Pretoria.
Originally in Florence, but moved to Palermo in 1574. The fountain was dismantled - 644 pieces - shipped and several buildings then demolished to make room for its new home.
The nudes apparently shocked the nuns in a convent facing onto the fountain. Less pious (and doubtless sniggering) locals nicknamed the piazza the ‘Square of Shame’. Now that I think of it, I probably would have been one of those sniggering - unless I was in a prison for heretics.
For the rest of the day I wander.
Newstands (and admittedly a passerby) …
… bookstalls, bookstores ...
... and a man examining his latest purchase catch my eye. A favourite musty, dusty, secondhand treasure house of books near my Toronto home is about to close. How long before the citizens of Palermo also abandon paper for the thumbnail pleasures of emojis that hardly encourage much thinking?
Puppets for sale in a city with a tradition of marionettes dating back hundreds of years.
And passion on public display. Spot the indifference.
Cagliari
The next day, Cagliari, Sardinia, and a city I always enjoy (see links below). Just one picture this time - the migrants few seem to want, selling trinkets few want to buy. Tragedy is an overused word, but, right now, I can’t think of one better.
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Links to previous posts on Palermo and Cagliari:
http://trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.ca/2015/12/albania-revisited-and-other-places-part_2.html
http://trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.ca/2015/12/albania-revisited-and-other-places-part_3.html
