Since we were planning to head towards Palermo to pick up Keith at the airport, I did a little research and found that I wanted to see the cathedral in Monreale yet. I was less interested in driving right into Palermo, so found something on the outskirts. Monreale seemed ideal. We leisurely took some back roads in that direction and entered the town from the high end. We discovered that going 'up' wasn't the best way into town this time, and found ourselves right downtown Old Monreale, on the smallest, local, steep streets, once again. Yikes! Tight and careful navigation through the streets, trying to find the cathedral, I got to a point where all I wanted to do was find a way out of town. How would we ever squeeze out of here? It was also during a very busy market day, people walking everywhere.
We did find our way out, drove up again and stopped at a view point where we could see the cathedral below and a beautiful calm piazza in front of it. We didn't want to be defeated. So we scoped it out from above and decided we had to approach the town from below. Sure enough, this was the easy way in, and what a reward, what a treasure we experienced!
A Norman Arab church built in 1172, a Benedictine cloister next door, which was absolutely incredible architecture. We felt captivated by this place. Our first hour or so was just wandering in the courtyard of the cloister ....a splendid example of Sicilian Romanesque architecture. The four sides of the cloister , each 47 m long, are entirely surrounded by a portico with an uninterrupted series of 228 small paired columns bearing capitals and pointed arches.
And inside the Cathedral was unbelievable. Mosaics covered every inch of it's walls, arches, window panes .... it's indescribable, really.
We did find our way out, drove up again and stopped at a view point where we could see the cathedral below and a beautiful calm piazza in front of it. We didn't want to be defeated. So we scoped it out from above and decided we had to approach the town from below. Sure enough, this was the easy way in, and what a reward, what a treasure we experienced!
A Norman Arab church built in 1172, a Benedictine cloister next door, which was absolutely incredible architecture. We felt captivated by this place. Our first hour or so was just wandering in the courtyard of the cloister ....a splendid example of Sicilian Romanesque architecture. The four sides of the cloister , each 47 m long, are entirely surrounded by a portico with an uninterrupted series of 228 small paired columns bearing capitals and pointed arches.
And inside the Cathedral was unbelievable. Mosaics covered every inch of it's walls, arches, window panes .... it's indescribable, really.
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