One of the bonuses of travelling at this time of year is the lack of fellow tourists which occasionally means getting your own private tour. This happened when we visited the ‘Inquistador Museum’ (Palazzo Chiaramonte) which is part of the University of Palermo.
The building was used to incarcerate non-Christians at the time of the Spanish Inquisition and now images drawn by the prisoners on their cell walls are on display. As the inquisition ended the inquisitors hastily plastered over the graffiti in an effort to hide evidence of what had happened (they burnt the written evidence) which unwittingly preserved the images until their discovery in 2005.
The weather has gone downhill since we arrived and we are having very ‘English’ weather (though I know it is not as cold as back home) and it is also wet. The Palermitani are bundled up in coats, hats and scarves which is not surprising as we both have warm coats and are wearing thermal leggings under our thin walking trousers. I asked our guide yesterday if this weather was typical for the time of year and apparently it is not. It was twenty degrees here on Christmas Eve.
With the weather being what it is, I felt sorry for the proprietor of a new Pizza Restaurant which opened below our apartment yesterday, complete with outside seating. We have booked a table for tonight (inside) hoping that any glitches that happened on their opening night will have been ironed out by now.
The graffiti I talked about above was shown on an episode of Sicily Unpacked we found on YouTube (thanks, Jill). We have sorted out how to receive iPlayer and have also watched ‘Sicily, Wonder of the Mediterranean’ presented by Michael Scott.
Tortoise Travel 
So glad that you are having such a stimulating time and that YouTube is also coming up trumps for you.
Do hope that the weather improves for you soon – but at least you know that it wouldn’t be any better here!
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Yes, that’s true. I’ve been watching the weather in the UK. Don’t think the Horsham area has had any snow yet. Keep warm!
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It’s apparently going to snow tomorrow evening and on into Wednesday morning – we will see!
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It all sounds amazing – I’m both jealous and also abashed that we haven’t had your courage and gone for it. But I’m enjoying your enterprise at second hand, so thank you!
I saw a fascinating programme about Byzantine mosaics, explaining that their perspective works in the opposite way to western art. Instead of the perspective receding from the viewer to a vanishing point, as in the western tradition, the imaginary lines come forward to focus in front of the picture, where the viewer is standing. Completely changes your take on the picture. Try it!
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That sounds really interesting, thank you. I’ll watch out for that programme.
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