Not for people of a nervous disposition…

Well this week for a change I thought I would tell you about a port I went to a few years ago and also a trip I went on  while I was there.

We were on the Costa Fortuna and I have to say that the ship was really nice, what fascinated me was in the atrium they had small versions of the fleets ships upside down stuck to the ceiling which was a bit different. The atrium was really nice and bright and lots of glass elevators. It was really lovely.

It was a mostly Italian cruise and took in Livorno Sorrento and Naples and Sardinia and Sicily.

It was while we were in Sicily that a trip was brought to my attention and I was asked if I fancied doing it, now for those that know me well they know I am a wimp when it comes to anything that cannot be seen or explained,or anything to do with things that are dead and ghosts so what on earth possessed me to agree to this trip god alone knows. I sleep with the light on after a mildly scary horror film.

You need to picture the scene, I wish I had photos but we were not allowed to take any. We get off the ship and off we head to a place in Palermo called  Catacombe dei Cappuccini which loosely translates to The Capuchin Catacombs, me thinking catacombs were caves so at that stage I was quite happy, oh boy did that change and fast. My “friends” were sniggering away while I was walking in and it smelt a little damp but was not cold so I just followed everyone else, I was listening to the guide but watching where I was walking so was not really taking notice of what was around me until I made that fateful decision and stopped to look around as I thought its too light to be in the cave yet. I cannot describe the pure horror that surrounded me, the whole place just closed in on me and I was in the middle of the walking dead but for real, I was surrounded by dead bodies in all sorts of dress and decay, they were hanging on the walls and laid down on slabs, my eyes focused on one “mummy” that had its jaw hanging down and looked like it was screaming but the only noise I could hear then was my heart pounding in my ears. Then I looked around and noticed I was alone, well apart from hundreds of scenes from my worst nightmare, I ran in circles as i had no idea where the others had gone in that few seconds I thought I was going to die such was the horror of it all. I then realised that the others had gone down another corridor so I was like a bat out of hell running to catch them, actually you would have thought the bat out of hell was chasing me.

Of course everyone thought it was highly funny except me, I never left the centre of the group after that. I still couldn’t look at quite a few of the mummified people as it really was scary, I did get the gist of it all though and they say that from the 1500s people used to take their dead relatives there to be looked after, they were dressed and bathed, god knows what in, but it didn’t really smell bad, they used to put the monks in there as well and I thought they had been hung but when their bodies started to decay I suppose the word is then their rope belts fell down so they put them around their neck, its all true I can assure you.

The sad part is that there are babies in there as well and a young 2 year old girl who died of pneumonia in 1920, her name is Rosalia Lombardo and her parents couldn’t bear to put her in the ground so had her mummified, she just looks like she is sleeping. Sometimes it is said that at certain times in the day her eyes open a little and her eyes are intact, I could not say as I really didn’t look that closely other than to say her eyes did not look fully closed. The videos I have seen on you tube say different though, take a look.

After my initial shock I found it all morbidly interesting and if you are looking for something a bit different to do if your ship docks in or near Palermo then go and have a look, you can’t take cameras in though.It was only a few Euros as well if you went on your own.

Just be prepared to be shocked and its not really something for kids unless they watch the likes of the walking dead in which case they will love it.

This is the link if you want to go and have a look yourself just don’t eat your dinner first.

www.palermocatacombs.com or google the images.

Sicily is a gorgeous place to visit and a lot of cruise ships call there but not as many go to Palermo as they used to so check distances but if you like the macabre then its just your sort of trip.

Would I go again?

Not on your Nelly!! but that’s just me.

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