Monreale

Palermo

Yesterday afternoon we walked down to the port.  They had these awesome trees that grew from the top down.  They were at the Giardino Garibaldi near the port.  They looked like they had a bunch of trunks, but they all grew from one original trunk and new roots grow down from the top.

Palermo Port

Ficus Magnolioides

Monreale

This morning we went to ISMETT for the first time.  I was surprised that so many people spoke English.  The Chief Nursing Officer, Giuseppe, met us when we first got there.  He was very nice.  I am excited for when I will be shadowing him.  Today, we only had a short day because we had orientation.

After we left ISMETT, we went up to Monreale.  The cathedral there was beautiful.  The outside was nothing spectacular, but the inside was amazing!  I could not believe that it was built in only twenty years.  The entire inside was completely covered in gold and it shone when the sun came through the windows.

The view from outside the cathedral was beautiful.  You could see all the way down to Palermo from the top of Monreale.

On the way back from Monreale, Carrie got caught for not stamping her bus ticket resulting in a 53 euro ticket.  A lot of people who took this trip before us told us that we didn't have to stamp them because they were never checked.  Of course the one time we go, we get checked.

We planned for a home cooked family dinner.  We were trying to decide how much to buy while we were on the bus.  We were talking about whether to get 100 or 200 grams of salami.  Our professor told us we needed to order due etto chilo.  That is 200 kilograms of salami.  When we tried to tell her that was way too much, she would not believe us.  We got 200 grams when we ordered our way.

Dinner ended up being delicious though.  Each of us were responsible for bringing something to dinner.  We had aperitivo before of cheese grapes and wine.  Our dinner was chicken, potatoes, peppers and zucchini.  It was definitely nice after eating as restaurants every day.