Yep, We've Got a Palace!
April 2
When I was reading about Palermo, I found that there’s actually a PALACE built by the Sclafani family in Palermo. (For those of you not completely up to date on my family tree – my Dad’s paternal grandmother was a Sclafani.) I did some studying on the Sclafani family and found that they were actually pretty important in the 1300s – and very powerful. They were in bed – so to speak – with the Chiramonte family, and the two dynasties kind of dominated Sicily in the 1300 & 1400s. Of course, power changed hands quite frequently in Sicily due to all that conquering – so the Chiramonte & Sclafani reigns “withered”. Nevertheless, there IS a palace and I have the pictures to prove it.
We exited the red, hop-on, hop-off bus at Palazzo Reale. This is the real deal! Biggest palace I’ve ever seen (except for Buckingham in London) and beautiful gardens. It’s Sunday – so unfortunately tours have already closed for the day – but we can walk the gardens. We check the map & find that the Sclafani place is really close & start to walk to it. We discover that it’s just across the street!
I had read that the Sclafani place is now used by the Italian Military should I wasn’t sure what to expect. There were flags above the front door, but no other identification, and it was boarded up and looked like it wasn’t in use. Sherine took a couple of pictures of me standing in front of the door and we started to walk around the side to see how large it was.
I’m snapping pictures of the whole block – since the side of the palace is spanning the whole block – when Sherine calls me over. She’s found the “motherlode” – the actual, historical market that this is Palazzo Sclafani. There’s two young guys sitting on the threshold and they’re not at all interesting in why we’re there or why we’re taking pictures (and since I don’t know any Italian for: “this is my family’s place, so could you get out of the way” – we just work around them.
So Rafello’s – here’s another piece of the family puzzle!! Check out the pictures – this place really could have been something in its day. For one, it’s surrounded by prominent villas (and of course, the Palazzo Reale) and their views were of immaculate, well-designed gardens. Check out the crest above the “real” front door – pretty cool!
We walk around the back & realize this place really was huge! The back borders a small, run down alley called “Via Matteo Sclafani” – which means at some point, this street was a really big deal too!! (By the way, Matteo Sclafani is the guy you’ll read about in the history books if you’re ever interested.) We keep walking and at the end of the alley we return to Via Vittorio Emanuele (a major street – EVERY town in Italy has one!) and a huge plaza with what looks like a big old church. That big old church turns out to be the Palermo Cathedral (see Palermo post for more details). At that moment, I decide that the Sclafani’s have had to have been a VERY BIG DEAL indeed – because to be in the company of the city’s religious leaders and all the prominent families that lived in that neighborhood – was a VERY BIG DEAL.
Pretty cool indeed!!
