Castello a Mare — Attraction in Palermo

After a long walk through Palermo I was planning to visit the Castello/archeological site today (Saturday) around midday. As I arrived, I was sitting down on a bench outside the ticket office (not even passing the door of the office) outside the site to rest my feet, taking off my shoes, and recover a bit before sightseeing. My feet were hot but clean and odorless, and anyway there was nobody around, no visitors/tourists/students, no one at all (end of March seems to be off-season still). A few moments later, three employees(?) exited the ticket office and sat down on another bench in sight, about 10 meters away, for a break. They didn't mind me sitting on the other bench. Ironically, at this moment, I was musing whether I fould find working in a ticket office when business is slow relaxing or rather frustrating. The employes seemed relaxed and, as I said, did not mind me minding my own business on the other bench.

A few minutes later, a fourth employee arrived but he did seem to mind me. As I don't speak Italian and he didn't speak anything else, I had to deduce from his gestures and reccuring words (basic Italian words I can understand knowing a bit of Latin and French) what the problem might be. The most common word was "biglietto" (ticket, of course), the second most common "archeologica" (Well, I did know that what I was planing to visit were ancient ruins, so no mystery there). His gestures pointing at me and my feet made clear that he was bothered by me sitting there (again: his colleagues, who must have noticed my before him, had shown no irritation towards me), worsened by missing shoes.

I was trying to communicate that I was planning to enter the ticket office (with shoes on my feet, of course:) in a few minutes, but apparently unsuccessfully. He repeated the same words over and over, still with biglietto as the most prevalent. I guess I would have been less confused if he indicated that the bench was generally off-limits (it wasn't, it was right ahead of the door of the ticket office, and next to a tourist information poster and a trash bin) or if he had concentrated on the crime of naked feet on sacred ground ... but why then repeating the need for a biglietto over and over, thus implying that the exchange of money would absolve my feet from sin?

We both were polite the whole time but obviously getting a bit frustrated with the situation. As I was already putting my shoes on and was about to leave, he finally called over his colleagues who also seemed to exclusively speak Italian (unfortunately for me, because I really would have wanted to understand), and naturally showed solidarity with their colleague, whatever it might have been that he had on his mind.

So, to wrap this up: I didn't visit the Castello/archeological site. I really should learn Italian (cruel joke that my school made me take five years of Latin). My final analysis regarding what my friend wanted to communicate: 40% "You have no ticket", 25% "This is an archeological site" (again, this seemed not to be in conflict with my feet, as the whole context made quite clear, that having a biglietto would override foot-related crimes), 30% "I might have a chance to exercise some authority here, towards this guy minding his own business and also towars my colleagues who didn't mind this guy minding his own business", and 5% "This is my personal favourite bench and only I am allowed to sit here". As witnessed by me posting this, I obviously am petty enough that I might be suited to follow in my friends footsteps and work a similar job, making my own entertainment when business is slow. But I'm quite sure the job would frustrate me no less on the employee-side than on the...

IL CASTELLO A MARE DI PALERMO di Claudio Alessandri

Il Castello a Mare fu sede del Tribunale Ecclesiastico dell’Inquisizione fino al 1593. In quell’anno avvenne un avvenimento disastroso, l’esplosione della Santa Barbara che causò una vera e propria strage fra i prigionieri ed i soldati che li controllavano.

Molte cronache del tempo riportano la notizia narrandone tutti i particolari; raccolte dalla penna ispirata di Leonardo Sciascia che riportò in un suo scritto colmo di pathos la tragica morte del poeta monrealese Antonio Veneziano. L’avvenimento disastroso si verificò il 19 agosto 1593, alle ore 15 all’incirca; dalle cucine che confinavano con due locali “dammusi” che fungevano da Santa Barbara e che contenevano una grande quantità di polvere da sparo, giunse, non si sa come, una scintilla che provocò una esplosione immane, fu di tale violenza che morirono più di trecento persone fra prigionieri, soldati e gente di fatica.

I corpi straziati vennero scagliati a grande distanza, ed ai soccorritori non rimase che mettere i miseri resti, resi irriconoscibili, dentro dei sacchi. Il boato provocato dall’esplosione venne udito a grandissima distanza seminando il terrore fra la gente; non furono pochi i fabbricati prossimi al castello che crollarono sotto l’urto immane dello spostamento d’aria. L’inquisitore monsignor Paramo che si trovava nel castello scampò alla morte, ma rimase gravemente ferito e dovette rimanere ricoverato per molto tempo presso il convento di S....

tje appetizers were great but the purple spaghetti had such a strong aftertaste that we barely touched. anothdf waiter removed the plate after we finished the other main and we said that it wasnt edible and we still were charged 28€ for a main we didn’t eat because it wasn’t edible. When we indicated this to the waiter when we got the bill he said « everything is fresh on our side » wiuthot coming to check earlier. Such a shame because the wine and the starters were amazing but...