A short trip to Sicily

Al and Arno enjoying a beer in Monreale piazza

So, my brother is now a 1st Lieutenant in the Marines and on his 4th or 5th (?) deployment - this time aboard a ship, the USS Bataan - under NATO command for Libya.  Anyhow, they pulled into port in Palermo in Sicily, Italy last weekend.  As they are not allowed to disclose the dates and location until last minute, we only found out the details 2 days before we actually arrived. Fortunately, there were affordable flights to Sicily (Trapani) with the great budget airline Ryanair.

We had only a little bit of time with Al, since some stupid guys on the ship screwed up their free time on the Saturday, but we enjoyed the time we had anyway.  We took him and his friend, Jason, to a small mountainside town above Palermo, called Monreale.  Beautiful cathedral there.

Where we ate one evening. Freshly grilled fish and a possible mafioso sighting

Palermo is an ancient city and still largely mafia-controlled, but it's pretty nice.  Not your typical polished overly tourist Italian city.  Well, most Italian cities and towns are not that polished, but this one is even lesser so.  Palermo felt very authentically Italian to me.

All in all, a short but sweet trip.  I'd love to go back and travel to Mt. Etna!

Inside Cathedral of Monreale

Enjoy the rest of the photos by clicking here!!