Today we had arranged for guided tours of Palermo and Cefalù, cities that are the repositories of many Sicilian architectural and artistic treasures, including several of the most celebrated examples of Byzantine and Arab mosaics scattered throughout the island of Sicily. Both of these cities lie on the western side of the island, so the distances to be traveled from our base in Taormina required more than 6 hours in a tour bus; and a long, 13-hour-day from start to finish. We made it to the pick-up point at the Taormina bus terminal by 7 AM, where our 12-seat-capacity tour bus, driver and guide met us in short order. After a couple of stops on the way out of town to pick-up a few more passengers, we drove south toward Catania via Sicily’s superhighway system, where
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