At one stage we had planned to go to mass in the Duomo last night, but in the end we changed our mind. We had still thought to go to mass on Sunday (ie today) in the Duomo, but after at least a half hour on line I could find out all kinds of interesting things about the Cathedral except the mass times! We decided to go to the massive newer church we had visited yesterday instead - it had three Sunday evening masses! More of that later. Major objective for today ...

There is a very large church near us called Our Lady of the Tears which we checked out first today. A miracle is said to have occurred nearby in 1953 ( M: Not my birth. That was another miracle! This took place a couple of weeks after my birthday) in the home of a very poor family. The daughter was very ill with her pregnancy and the family prayed to Our Lady in front of the statue in their home. Soon after tears are said to have flowed from the statue and contin...

Once again the Sicilian drivers commanded our respect as our excellent bus driver got us easily from Palermo to Syracuse while dodging road works and careless drivers and remaining cheerful. Neither of us likes the bus as much as the train. More cramped. However, we did get terrific views of a road system which flattens out the gorgeous hills and valleys by basically running elevated through large tracts. (Although every twenty km or so there seemed to be another...

Cefalu is a medieval city on the coast and one that I'm sure would be heaving in summer. At only 50 minutes by train from Palermo, its beaches, bays and monuments make it a popular day trip from its big sister city. On the train, our minds turned to our trip to Malta, and so we looked to book our ferry online, only to discover that for that entire week the ferries would not be running. The only week in the year, most likely, and we had picked it! Our minds then...

Rain threatened but didn't eventuate. A walk around another of Palermo's food markets was again fascinating with the stall holders, and we saw only males, calling out and tempting customers. This was largely in dialect so a little hard to decipher. Among the stalls was another selling frittoli (offal), which was packed. Mick had a sfincione ( light, almost spongy pizza) which he pronounced tasty. Next stop was the Henri Cartier- Bresson photo exhibit. C-B is a ...