This summer, 10 Students and two faculty members are traveling to Italy to examine the Etruscan, Greek, Roman, medieval, renaissance and modern footprints on the Italian peninsula and in Sicily. Please enjoy this blog post below from Torge ’27 where he shares about the first full day in Italy where they explored Palermo’s rich history through visits to the Royal Palace and archaeological museum, practiced their Italian over meals of seafood and gelato, and capped the day with dinner near the Teatro Massimo.
Today was our first full day in Italy! We arrived at the hotel yesterday afternoon, but we only had time to hastily unpack before our group leaders Sophia and Raffaella led us through the bustling streets of Palermo, Sicily. We got delicious cannoli at a convent founded in 1596. We then broke out into smaller groups to explore the streets around the Teatro Massimo, our rendez-vous point. At 7:30pm, we made our way to dinner, which for me was a plate of Pasta Bolognese with a side of grilled swordfish. We actually ordered in Italian, which was quite a stressful experience! We went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep around 9:30pm.
This morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed out at 9:00am sharp on foot towards the Palazzo dei Normanni, the Royal Palace of Palermo. The Norman king Roger II rebuilt this palace in 1132 when he drove the Arabs out of Palermo and became the first king of Sicily. We visited the Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel), which served as King Roger’s throne room. This chapel superbly demonstrates the confluence of the Byzantine, Norman, and Fatimid architectural movements in Sicily; different parts of the chapel and the palace were built in different styles and sometimes at different times.
Next, we visited an exhibit on Elliott Erwitt, a French-born American photographer known for his evocative black-and-white images. Underneath this exhibit were ruins of the Phoenician walls which once protected a settlement dating back to the 4th century BCE. We then took a short hiatus in the gardens of the palace to translate an inscription of a water clock found in the Palatine Chapel. While the water clock itself was lost to time, the triple inscription was still visible and was in fact repeated thrice: once in Latin, once in Greek, and once in Arabic. The actual inscription was quite hard to decipher, but thanks to our travel packets graciously provided by the Paideia Institute and Deerfield Academy, we were able to translate it without too much squinting. Under the gardens, Jonathan ‘28 and I found a system of underground passageways which seemed quite old and led to various spots around the gardens.
At around 1:30pm, we walked a few blocks to a crowded commercial street. Raffaella, Sophia, Dr. Houston, and Ms. Delwiche paired us up and released us into the wild with €30 per group to find lunch in the area. Maeve‘27 and I sat at a seafood restaurant called Fish n’ Chips. I got octopus with vegetables while Maeve ordered fish and chips. As it turns out, fish and chips in Palermo is different than the American dish you may be used to; Maeve got a plate of actual chips with an assortment of fried anchovies, octopus, and shrimp! At 2:00pm, we convened at an alley and headed towards the Regional Archaeological Museum Antonio Salinas. Sophia handed us bingo sheets at the entrance; the task being to find all the artifacts on the sheet. After meticulously combing the museum for 45 minutes, Skylar ‘27 and Emily ‘28 were able to fill out the entire sheet. Their reward was an extra scoop of gelato at our next stop. Yes, we finally got Italy’s famed gelato! I got a strawberry cone, then paid for a lemon one as it was so good.
After the desserts, we once again went in pairs to explore more of Palermo. I paired with Jonathan again, and we walked north, up via Vittore Emanuele until we reached the Mediterranean Sea. We looked around the harbour and down the coast, but eventually turned back towards the hotel. At 7:25, we met up in the lobby and departed for the Teatro Massimo restaurant. Dinner consisted of several different pasta dishes for everyone. I got a gazzosa (a traditional Italian soft drink made with lemon) to go with my meal. After dinner, we stopped at a Lidl to grab a few snacks for the next 24 hours, and finally walked back to the hotel for bed (and blogpost writing).
