August 7, 2019 Wednesday Palermo & Messina Reginal Museum

I actually thought we were upgraded to the Presidential Suite because the hotel was probably not very crowded.  Well I was wrong.  The breakfast room was crowded, and they were using another overflow room for more seating.  Sue being “Golden” paid off.

I almost really through a monkey wrench into our trip today in Palermo.  I went out to take some photos of Palermo, because it wasn’t even 10:00 and we had bus tickets for 12:45 to Messina.  I ended up on a pedestrian street in the heart of Palermo’s historic center.  I just forgot about the time.  All the time Sue was texting me saying it’s time we left for the bus station.  Well my phone received the texts, but I wasn’t getting the notification.  I later had to upgrade the operating system of the NEW phone to get the notifications to work.  I only became aware of the time when I texted a photo to Sue and saw her text (30 minutes earlier) that she was worried we would miss our bus!!!   I double timed it back to the hotel.  We hurried to a local bus stop because the station was a 20 minute bus ride away.  Well in the first two minutes I think the bus moved two blocks, we were doomed!  Then the bus turned onto an open street and the bus began to move.  We got off at the stop identified by Google Maps, but the path led us to a dead end!  This wasn’t going well.  We went back two blocks to where we got off the bus and saw the bus office one block in the other direction.  We hurried in and asked where the find the bus to Messina.  The lady said something and pointed out the door.  Around the corner was a large bus parking area.  We hurried over to the SAIS bus (the company we had tickets with).  I showed our tickets to the driver, he nodded and pointed to the luggage space on the driver’s side where I put our luggage.  We boarded and the bus pulled out about two minutes later.  I had booked a later time so we wouldn’t be rushed getting to the bus.  Thankfully the bus ride was uneventful with air conditioning and Wi-Fi.

We arrived in Messina pretty much on time.  The bus station is on the Piazza della Republica; the train station is also on this square.  Our hotel (not an Accor hotel darn) was only a block away.  So once again we checked into our hotel and then returned to Republica to catch the tram to the Messina Museum.  The tram ride was about 30 minutes.  The Messina Museo Regionate is short walk along the tram line from the last stop.  It is a very modern building, and once again I think we were the only people in the museum.  We took a bus back to Republica and went back to the hotel for a beer at the bar.  Later we went out for pizza at a place close by and it was very good.  

As you will see on most of the photos I haven’t added the title and artist; I have just left the photos of the information cards in the album so I can post this before Thanksgiving.  

080719 Palermo walkabout & Messina