Just visited the church San Gaetano in the Brancaccio district in the west of Palermo.
This was the church of Padre Pino Puglisi, who spoke out against the Mafia and so was killed by them in 1993.
http://www.padrepuglisi.it/
The district was described as poverty stricken, but was not as bad as I expected.
There are plenty of memorials to Padre Puglisi, both inside and outside the church building, so he has had an influence.
The outside of the stadium of my beloved Rosanero, the Palermo football team. The ground was locked. A helpful Italian man did his best to find someone to let me in to see the ground, but there was no one who could unlock it. Maybe I'll see a match there someday?
Visited the catacombs of the Capuchins in the north of Palermo. This has the bodies of dead monks, as well as others, who I assume were connected with the parish. The bodies are mostly partly preserved by the conditions in the catacombs, they are not just skeletons. Most are dressed in their clothes and some have name tags. There are pictures related to the Via Crucis, I assume this is prayed down there sometimes.
The tourist guide book says this visit us not recommended for young children, but there were plenty there, and a woman told me that local schools visit there all the time.
I visited the Palermo Cathedral, which is part of the history of Palermo since before the Normans were here. I think that is the reason for the variety of styles in the building. I started with walking on the roof, then decided to leave when a wedding started. They didn't need one more tourist watching them.
Just before I left the cathedral, I saw the shrine to Fr Pino Puglisi, who was shot by the Mafia in the Brancaccio district in the Eastern part of Palermo in 1993.
After several recommendations and 2 failed attempts (once full, once closing up for the afternoon), I finally had a meal at the Mangia è Bevi restaurant in Palermo
http://www.osteriamangiaebevi.it/
They were right. The food was full of flavour, service no nonsense and efficient and prices less than most of the tourist cafes. It took a while, so I made a meal if it:
Antipasta: crumbed eggplant (Tunisian style)
Primi: pasta with ricotta and pork
Secondi: tuna with tomato and olives
mmmmmmm.
I visited a former palace in Palermo, which had been used as a prison by the Inquisition. The prisoners wrote graffiti on the walls, which is surprisingly clear and neat.
One of the prisoners, Francesco Mannarini had converted to Islam, possibly under duress, then found himself back in Christian Sicily and before the Inquisition. A lose/lose if ever there was one.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/14/arts.religion
They say Godfather 2 was the best, but Godfather 3 had the scene of the shooting on the steps of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Here are the steps, and the view from the Royal Box.
At last!! I found the shop selling clothes, scarves, coffee mugs, keyrings, toothbrushes etc for supporters of US Città Palermo, my beloved football team.
I'm waiting at Chareloi for the flight to Trapani.
I have seen a couple of these pianos, so far no one has been playing them.
I'm doing some shopping in Antwerp, it is as pleasant as always. A bit formal, and no yobbos, I like that very much.
This is a small painting of the Descent from the Cross (Het Afdaling Van het Kruis) by the Flemish painter Pieter-Paul Rubens. The final work is the huge painting behind the altar in the Cathedral in Antwerp, which is Ruben's home town. There is also a small copy in Christ Church St Lawrence in Broadway in Sydney.
In the galleries here, he is referred to as "Sir" Peter Paul Rubens. Apparently Charles I knighted this Flemish boy when he lived in England (Philip IV of Spain also knighted him, but they might have been occupying Flanders St the time.) Charles I also knighted "Sir" Anthony Van Dyck, so the English were happy to throw around knighthoods to foreigners, just like Tony Abbott.
I go to a pub trivia contest, and one question was "what was the first domesticated pet?"
The answer was geese, and this statue from 300BC in the British Museum is evidence that this is correct
I visited the RAF museum north of London. Apart from planes, they had related machines, such as cars used around the airports, here is the Vanguard Standard. My first memory of a car was the Vanguard Spacemaster that my parents owned at the time. Apart from its great name, it had a conventional boot compared to this model, but otherwise was very similar.
The museum is huge and interesting, but these memorials to war can sometimes be unfortunate. There were many groups of small boys being led around the exhibition, and I overheard one say "I don't like Germans". Sad.
This is on the porch in front of Westminster Cathedral. I remember my parents visiting me here in 1983 and we stood in the same spot, chatting to the priest for a while.
Interesting piece in the Victoria and Albert museum.
I thought St George had his hands full with the dragon, but that was the least of his problems.
The Byzantine grandeur (plus a few rough edges) of Westminster Cathedral, after Vespers on Friday. A joy.
I'm staying at St Monica House, which is run by an order of nuns called the Augustinian Religious Servants of Jesus and Mary.
I hadn't heard if them but they started in Italy and were founded by Sr M Teresa Spinelli, who has a busy life story, involving leaving an abusive husband.
It's a good place to stay.
The tombs I have seen usually try to show the importance of the occupant. On the other hand, this one in the Victoria and Albert museum in London show a noblewoman testing quietly. I like it.
The V&A is much more than I expected, a huge collection dedicated to, but not about Victoria and Albert.
I'm now at Bangkok airport, with 4 more hours to wait for my connecting flight to London.
The plane left at 10am this morning and I had a window seat, so I saw Australia from 36,000 feet, going right across the centre to the north of Western Australia.
The centre of Australia is horrible and terrifying. It looks like a place for a Mars rover, not humans. Even from such a height, the flat red sand went as far as the eye could see. It was surely impossible that there was anyone alive down there.
When we crossed the coast, on the other hand, it was beautiful. The coast is jagged, with many inlets and lakes, the green vegetation goes right up to the shore where there is a Sandy beach. The water is a light blue, and it looked calm and shallow.
Having said that, there were no obvious signs of human habitation. No buildings of any sort, no roads, no boats on the sea, only pristine, lonely nature. Does anyone do anything there?
In contrast, when we passed over Indonesian islands, there was obvious human activity. Why the difference?
