Sicily was our main focus for this trip to Europe, and on Tuesday we flew to Palermo, escaping the first day of strikes in Paris without incident.

By bus and cab, we made our way to the B&B where we would spend two nights. Once we settled in, our host, Theodoro, offered to drive us to the town center, up a long steep hill from the B&B. The restaurant, Osteria Peper’s offered standard Sicilian fare that was good but not particularly memorable. The place was jammed with memorabilia, including, on the walls, album covers of American and Italian jazz and rock bands. With dinner we shared a bottle of Nero d’Avola from a vineyard nearby.

The next day, Theodoro (who spoke French, so he and Pat could communicate), again drove us up the hill to the town so we could spend the mid-day at the main attraction of Monreale, the cathedral. Norman rulers of the time — the late 12th century — were tolerant of the pre-existant Arab culture, and the cathedral architecture is the product of Norman and Arab craftsman, while the mosaics were the specialty of Byzantine Greeks. There are 68,000 square feet of mosaics. (That’s about 1 1/2 acres.) The golden glow results from the use of paper-thin gold leaf sandwiched between two layers of glass. It’s estimated that about 2 tons of gold leaf were used to create the mosaics in the walls and ceiling. This enormous cathedral was constructed in just 15 years between 1174 and 1189.

Behind the alter is an enormous Christ Pantocrator mosaic, in the style of the Eastern Orthodox Church (the church of the Byzantine Greek mosaic artists). Along the walls of the nave are stories from the old and new testaments.

Also on our tour of the cathedral were the cloisters and a climb to the roof, with its sweeping views of Palermo and the Tyrrhenian Sea.