Day 5 - Men of honour

We wake up in the territory of the mafia. For us this is far away, but for the Sicilians it is part of their daily life. They don't like to talk about it themselves, but the mafia is still ubiquitous. People don't talk so much about mafia, but about 'men of honour' or 'friends of friends'. Just yesterday we were confronted with the facts  on our way to Palermo, as we drove past the place where Judge Falcone was murdered in 1992. The mafia used no less than 400 kg of dynamite (so as not to take any risks) and blew up not only the judge but also a part of the highway over which the judge and his entourage were driving.

Organized in southern Italy and Sicily, the mafia originated in Sicily south of Palermo, in and around agrarian Corleone.

The rise of the mafia dates back to well before the 19th century. Sicily at that time was purely agricultural and in the possession of noble landowners. These, of course, did not roll up their sleeves to work the land. For a percentage of the harvest and a rent, they divided the land among the peasants. To oversee the property and make sure the harvest would yield enough, they hired foremen. These supervisors were called 'chef' or 'capo' by the tenants. This capo was the point of contact for the re-leasing of the lands and more importantly, the distribution of the rainwater that was stored in basins for irrigation. Irrigating the fields on the very dry island was the only guarantee of prosperity. In short: whoever owned or divided the water also possessed the wealth and therefore the power. 

Foremen were corrupt, and free to dispose of the faith of many tenants. This is where the foundations were laid for today's mafia, which mainly deals with criminal practices such as prostitution,  loansharking, real estate, drug trafficking, extortion (still a very big problem), arms trade and corruption. As tourists we are left alone by the 'Cosa Nostra'. We are needed for the economy and are tolerated.

On our visit today we get a city guide: the Belgian Karine, who is perfectly trilingual… and she has a lot to tell. We first take a city tour along the important buildings such as the Quattro Canti, the fountain of shame (in front of the town hall is an imposing fountain made of Carara marble, which caused a lot of controversy at the time because one was not supposed to order something so expensive for a poor region), the gate of Emperor Charles, etc.

We start just outside Palermo with a visit to the cathedral of Monreale, the pinnacle of Norman-Arabic architecture. The church was founded by William II. Globally, this cathedral is second only to the Aya Sofia in Istanbul in terms of mosaics. The church also has sparkling mosaics with passages from the Old and New Testaments. It took a lot of work to get all this splendor: three preparatory layers, then the figure was first drawn and then the mosaics were placed. They are so finely crafted that they look more like paintings than mosaics. 

We are staring at it with dropped jaws. Willem II himself is buried in a sarcophagus in the cathedral.

We drive back into the city and stop first at the Arab-Norman Palace for a tour of the Cappella Palatina, Roger II's private chapel in the palace. It is also decorated with mosaics of Biblical scenes. Unlike Monreale, you can clearly see the mosaic pieces here. Real works of art of an almost otherworldly beauty. The wooden ceiling is an Arabic masterpiece with paintings, and reminds us of the ceilings in the Alhambra, in Granada, Spain.

Next stop, the cathedral… (we are in Italy, no shortage of churches).

Unfortunately, it is marred by a huge advertising panel, to the dismay of our guide. She may be Belgian by birth, but she has become an Italian fury…

Not much is left of the original Norman construction. It was rebuilt over the years into a neoclassical building, without any real charm inside. Only on the outside a few Norman and Arab elements remain. The cathedral is therefore only interesting from the outside.

From here it goes to the Politeama, Palermo's smaller theater. 

Here we say goodbye to Karine and we get the rest of the afternoon off. Enough time for a short walk through the city, to take some pictures and also to make a stop at the Teatro Massimo, the opera house of Palermo, which in size with its 7700 m² comes after that of Paris and Vienna.

Palermo is clearly more than mafia. The city is crowned queen of mosaics and with beautiful small and large buildings, both inside and out, Palermo is worth a visit.