Monreale, A Vineyard Visit, and Arrival in Aragona

Hello Everyone,

Leaving Palermo we traveled up into the hills to tour the Monreale Cathedral, a masterpiece of Norman architecture built in 1182 by William II, the third Norman king of Sicily.
enter image description here

It is considered one of the most important examples of Norman architecture in all of Sicily.

enter image description here

The interior walls feature mosaics depicting the best known Bible stories which provided religious instruction to new converts. This was known as the "Biblia Pauperum" (Pauper's Bible). Here is an example of the story of Adam and Eve and their unfortunate encounter with the serpent at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
enter image description here

The interior of the church is just stunning, with very generous use of gold leaf mosaic tiles on the walls: enter image description here There is also a notable Moorish influence, as you can see from these photos of wall tiles taken at various locations around the church:

Tyler Cowan, the polymath economist and blogger, says that Monreale is "highly underrated", and he's right. I'd never heard of it before visiting Sicily but I won't ever forget it now that I've seen it.

We bid farewell to our guide, Davide, who was really very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of very interesting information during our time in Northern Sicily. Here, Davide and Cath are discussion some of the fine details of the Monreale interior features: enter image description here

We continued on with Giuseppe towards the Southern coast of Sicily. We made a stop along the way for a tour and a light lunch at Azienda Vinicola Porta del Vento, a vineyard and winery in the beautiful area of Camporeale. (Please note that a Sicilian light lunch would be considered a full meal by most Americans.) The vineyard is cultivated without pesticides and unlike most American vineyards, the natural ground cover is allowed to grow under the vines, which is said to provide the vines with extra nutrients and allow the meager rainfall to sink in better. It almost looks like they are growing flowers instead of grapes: enter image description here

Here we are with the very gracious owner of the estate, Marco: enter image description here

After lunch, we continued on to our next overnight perch, the Resort Fontes Episcopi in Aragona. enter image description here This is an old estate that was scheduled to be torn down and replaced with apartment buildings. A local pharmacist, Mauricio, got his family to join him in buying the property with the aim of restoring it to its former glory. They have created a unique inn where the guests are welcome to enter the kitchen to watch dinner being made, and can take walks around the property to see the olive orchards, wheat fields, and assorted pet animals. Mauricio has filled the inn with books, artwork and interesting artifacts. We stayed there two nights and helped to make pizza and focaccia the first night, and watched the cook make dinner the second night. Really fun! Here's a few photos of the resort:
enter image description here