Teatro Massimo

The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is the biggest in Italy, and the third largest opera house in Europe after the Palais and Vienna. It is renowned for its acoustics. Mark, PY and I were booked on a 9:20am tour - although it turned out to be a 9:30am. We picked up a tickets about half an hour early and sat in the cafe with a coffee while waiting. The building is incredible.  While we were there, preparations are underway for a production of Don Giovanni but, nonetheless, we got a great tour. The photograph is taken from the Royal Box which, as you would expect, provides a great view. It also has an anti-chamber where dignitaries can socialise in private.  

After the tour we stopped at an outside cafe and waited for the others to join us.  From there we spent a couple of hours wandering the shops. We stopped for a beer at a nicely shaded restaurant and went to a poké-style lunch place (which reminded me of the British chain Tossed) to create our own lunches.  After that we did some more wandering of the streets looking at some of Polermo’s incredible architecture before stopping in another square for another beer in the sunshine. 

Onwards to the supermarket and some more sparkling wine was purchased as well as extras that would allow us create dinner.  We were in two minds about eating  on the terrace tonight. The wind was gusting much more than yesterday and we had to remove anything that might blow off. We couldn’t really keep many things on the table and our snack packet of crisps was held tightly as it was passed around. I ended-up dozing for a little bit and, when I awoke, it had been decided to risk dinner on the roof as everybody felt the wind was dying down. It was a good call and it was a lovely pasta dish using leftovers.  There’s still some left and I suspect that we won’t be able to eat it before we leave.