Description
Antique print dated 1895.
The page is over 115 years old and in good condition.
In order to enhance and protect the page we have set in within a bespoke frame and mount.
Frame size 400mm x 370mm. available also in a
gold frame, your choice. RtW.143.
Entitled – Palermo. General View of the City.
Below the picture an inscription reads:
Palermo. – It is not a little difficult to reach this port from our last stopping-place.
We must first of all take a steamer belonging to one of the Spanish lines, from Oporto to Gibraltar, and we reach Palermo from thence in about five days.
Palermo has a population of about a quarter of a million, and it certainly enjoys one of the most beautiful situations in the Mediterranean.
This, the capital of Sicily, lies on the south-western shore of its lovely bay, near the foot of Monte Pellegrino, on a slope gently rising from the sea, and in a sort of natural amphitheatre formed by high and rocky mountains.
The country between the city and these mountains is amazingly fertile, abounding in orange and lemon trees.
The town forms a parallelogram, with more depth than frontage to the sea; two main streets divide it into four sections.
The Toledo, or Corso Vittorio Emanuele, extends from the Porta Felice on the sea to the Porta Nuova near the Palace; this street is intersected at right angles by the Via Macqueda.
The rest of the town is very irregular, and retains the Saracenic features of narrow streets and tortuous alleys.
It may be interesting to mention that there are in Sicily 125,000 acres of land covered with olive trees, the annual crop being about 15,000 tons; there are also 19,000 acres of oranges, lemons, and citrons.
The plain of Palermo is called the Conca d’oro (Golden Shell) on account of its shape and great fertility; it is about twenty-five miles in circumference, and is hemmed in by a grand chain of mountains.
The city itself has walls built in the time of the Aragonese Kings, and there are fifteen gates.
Two miles from Palermo is the Monte Pellegrino, a magnificent mass of rock, 1,960ft. high, and surrounded by inaccessible precipices, save on the city side, where a zig-zag road leads to the summit.
If you buy an item and then see it relisted this is because we occasionally have more than one available, each page is
original and not a photocopy.
Thank you for looking, please visit our shop.
