Today we drove the 50 miles to Palermo where my driving skills learnt in the centre of Athens in the 90's came in handy in combat with the lunatic Italian drivers and scooter riders. We managed to find somewhere to park but worried that under the P sign it said "senso oblique", does this mean there is some form of parking sensor which is a bit off centre? We took a chance and after further research discovered it just means park at an angle and there is no charge which is a first for a city centre.
Oblique would also be a good description of the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Sicily whose maps were awful. I like to think I can read a map but those in the guidebook were so bad that I read aloud a description of the cathedral when in fact we were looking at a completely different church, it would have amused anyone who overheard me but no one offered to correct my error, they probably thought "stupid English".
In comparison to English churches those in Palermo were not great, there was an interesting meridian line in the main cathedral, at noon it is struck by the suns ray's through a window and from its position you can read off the date, handy if you need to set your mobile phone.
In another church there was the grave of Giovanni Falcone a prosecuting magistrate who was after the mafia. The grave is pictured at the top of the page.
The mafia were so determined to kill him they laid over 800lbs of explosive under a motorway and set it off as he drove over in 1992. He and many others were killed in the explosion.
Supposedly this changed public opinion and led to the end of the mafia's hold over Sicily, there are two large obelisks either side of the motorway where the attack took place and his grave attracts the most attention in the church. The airport is also named after him.