Costa Pacifica Postcard #7.2

Our arrival at the port of Palermo

Main entrance to the port

Well all I can say is the English speaking Costa hostess did warn us there wasn’t a great deal in Palermo.
Shortly before 9:00am we left the ship and proceeded to the security gates of the port. The first bottleneck was the local taxi tour firms and HoHo bus agents all urging you to take one of their tours. There must have been about 30 of them all waving their little brochures in you face. Once you had circumnavigated that obstacle there were the horse and cart tours all doing the same thing. Why is it that one will see you saying “No thank you” to the person in front and then still ask you and expect you to say “Yes” to them?
Anyway, once out of the gates came the turn of the motor scooter taxi brigade, again in large numbers. This continued for about a quarter of a mile and to be honest we were really getting fed up with it by now. When we eventually reached the Opera House and sat and took a few photos before deciding to head back to the ship but thought that by going a different route would minimise the agro. It did but what a sad run down and dirty place it is behind the main streets. We experienced piles of stinking rubbish piled high and could only determine there must be some sort of industrial action going on. Dirty and shabby would be the words I would use to describe the area of Palermo we witnessed. Even the Opera house was grubby on the outside. In all we spent just short of 2 hours off the ship and would conclude that if we ever stop here again we will stay on board.