Palermo

Awake at 4:45am and I found it surprisingly easy to get up. PY said he hadn’t slept too well but I only recall being awake once in the night. Mark and Rob met us in the hotel reception (they were at the hotel across the road) and we took the pods back to Terminal 5, where we met Eleanor.  In the end, we decided to check our bags and then made our way to the lounge where we made full use of the breakfast.  We needed the transit to the satellite B gates and we didn’t wait too long before we boarded. Mark and Rob stopped off at WH Smith’s and so we were already seated when they walked down to their seats. 

When we arrived in Palermo we headed off for customs. Being near the front of the plane should have had advantages and I was not going to wait while lots of people passed us and got in front at passport control.  Unfortunately, I was directed to the automatic gates which didn’t work and needed to be reset. Eventually, they let me join the queue to see the border guard but, after being the first of our little party to join a line, I was the last one through. Technology defiantly wasn’t working here. Baggage collection was simple and we found our way down to the railway station. 

The station was very basic. Two tracks coming in to an underground hanger with a couple of ticket machines, one of which wasn’t working. But, we worked out how to buy a ticket and waited for the train which arrived after about 20 minutes. 

The train itself was a nice big European-style train and the journey into the central station was about an hour. There was some lovely scenery but also a lot of time in tunnels. The line appears to have been opened this century so all the stations are utilitarian concrete structures. Central station was nice and we disembarked into bright sunshine and 30 degree heat. 

We eventually found our way to the Airbnb. Palermo is filled with large apartment buildings casting shadows onto narrowest streets. It was remarkably quiet which we later discovered was the locals hiding from peak heat. By the evening, everything was much more lively.  We found our block and buzzed. They allowed us to store our bags while the apartment was being cleaned between guests so we climbed stairs to drop our bags and then walked down again. 

We returned to the apartment at 4pm to meet our host who gave us the guided tour of, what used to be, his wife’s father’s apartment.  We’d been intrigued by the description which showed two kitchens. It turned out that for a booking of 5 people we get two connected apartments which makes the layout a little odd. It had views over the building of Palermo and, supposedly, one of the highest private roof terraces in the city. 

Dinner was in Pot, a restaurant below the apartment block. We’d looked at the menu online before we left so were quite surprised to also be presented with a menu full of Japanese ramen dishes. We all opted to stay with what we’d selected. I had octopus for starters and cod for the main. I think we all considered PY’s crostini with the pesto the best starter.