Piana Degli Albanesi

The Rotary club of Piana Degli Albanesi invited the exchange students from Palermo for a day to see their city. I guess that people from Albany moved there when the Ottoman empire took over Albany in the fifteenth century, the government of Palermo/Sicily were friendly to them. Albanian heritage is still evident in the language and culture. All the signs in the city are bilingual, which was pretty neat. Note: all photos from today were taken by Katelyn. Not me. Which is why I actually have pictures to post.

After meeting up with some members of the club, we went to a church. The church was about to have a service so we didn't stay for long. I loved the bright murals on the walls, the colours were rich and vivid. There were some things written in Greek on the walls, and apparently some services are in Greek.

First church.

Next we went to another church (just down the street). On the way there we saw someone selling snails and another person selling fruit. The snails were trying to make an escape out of their buckets.

Selling melons.

The second chuch was different - less bright, but with more gold. This church was empty so we got to go right to the front and look at the paintings right up close.

Second church.

Off we went again, this time to a store that sold religious items, but mostly paintings. Nearly all of these paintings involved gold... and Jesus... The person explained a lot of things about the paintings, but I didn't understand much of it.

We then went to a museum, but the museum was either closed or about to close so we didn't get to stay for very long. We did get to see some traditional clothing and cheese making equipment, as well as articles on the history of the area.

The mosaic in the museum.

Then we went to another church and saw more paintings and mosaics. I know this sounds sort of repetetive and boring, but it actually wasn't. Each church had a different feel, a different tone, and no painting or mosaic was quite the same.

We then went for a three and a half hour lunch. I was confused arriving at the restaurant, there were a lot of people around and I thought they were all Rotarians, and that I'd have to give some humiliating speech about myself. Turns out this was just the type of restaurant it was. Groups reserve by table, and are served all the same things (as far as I could tell). We had cold appitizers (including cow's lips, I think, though at first I was just told that they were "meat", so I tried it. I've noticed that when I don't recognise a dish and am told "meat" or "the inside of an animal" it is frequently spleen, or lips, or stomach), hot appitizers (including stomach - didn't try, wimped out), risotto, pasta, meat (lamb or sheep? but of a cut I don't recognise.... or at least bones I didn't recognise....), fruit, then finally dessert (which was really good - I had seconds. It was a dough filled with sweet creamy filling, some of them including a touch of chocolate). And,

of course, this meal included bread, coffee and wine. I felt like a champ after finishing this. I didn't think I was going to make it after learning how many courses there were. I still managed to try everything I wanted to, most of them things I didn't recognise.

I had a really great day in Piana Degli Albanesi - better than I thought I'd have.