ITALY: Panoramic View of Palermo from the Cathedral's Rooftop

Palermo, the capital city of Sicily, has a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million people, making it the 5th largest city in Italy. 

 

If you want to get a bird’s eye view of an old city, a great place to do that is from the Cathedral's rooftop.

In Palermo you can see that the city is nestled between the Tyrrhenian Sea, Monte Pellegrino and the Sicilian Apennines from the cathedral’s rooftop.

 

To get to the rooftop of the Cathedral we had to climb up a narrow winding staircase. The ascent to the top is about 60 meters (197 feet) and there are approximately 200 steps. (I didn’t count that – I googled it.) BTW - big feet don’t help but instead make the narrow steps trickier, especially coming down.

There is a stop part way up which gives an opportunity to inspect the architecture up close, or, a pause for those that need a break from climbing

From this vantage point you get a partial view of the city, with red-tiled rooftops and a glimpse of the mountains to the south.

The final climb to get you to the top, and to get back down, is outside.

It is a bit unnerving to wak along the narrow walkway on the top. 

 

 

BUT, once you get past it, you can look out over the rooftops of the historic old city.

 

 

You can also see the surrounding mountains and glimpses of the clear blue sea.

 

 

While we were up there the bells rang. Loudly. You can see someone either manually ringing them, or, tinkering with them to make them even louder. I can imagine he'd have a hard time hearing his wife when he goes home at the end of the day.

 

 

I wonder if that's his story,

and he's sticking to it.