Site icon Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

Visiting the Count Federico

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In Palermo you have many fascinating things to see which I never would have imagined. The last time I visited the city i was trying to enter with a rental smart car. As I got towards the entrance to the city and found a small coffee shop I stopped and walked a little bit and saw cars parked every which way on the street and the sidewalk. Not one car was free of scratches or dents. I decided I didn’t want to have a problem smashing up my rental car so I decided after the coffee not to spend time in Palermo. One very interesting tour I decided to take was the Palazzo conte Federico, the Royal palace of Count Frederick. I highly recommend this tour to you since you might get the chance to meet the prince, which is just one of his titles. You can even book to stay at the palace since it has 25 rooms including many bedrooms.

Plaque on the wall
The entrance is very unassuming and looks slightly rundown
The 1930s race car often driven by Conte Federico.
You can see the many sponsors of his races
You see his name on the side of the car
You can see this hubcap is clearly marked for the right side
And this one is marked for the left side
The Federico family crest
The princes mother is an equestrian and a performing professional singer
this is the future count. His father is still alive and at 87 he is hoping to do some more racing. The future count has many titles depending upon the areas of land they used to own. But in the 1950s with land reform under the republic the king was exiled and the royalty had their land distributed. So the titles reflect no more land ownership except for the Palazzo. He gave us his tour.
The family still lives in the palace. Here you can see some of the original but redecorated wooden ceiling. Much of the building was destroyed during the bombing of World War II.
The original kitchen with the pizza oven, of course, during World War II a lot of the contents disappeared and we were told a significant amount was hidden in different places and when they went back they found nothing.
This is from the original Norman Tower. The family is with origins dating back to Barbarossa and the Viking king Roger from the 900s. This tower was built in the 1100s and is one of the corners of the palace. You have to walk about 1 mile to get to the ocean now but when this tower was built the ocean came up right next to the tower and it was used for defensive purposes.
here is some later decoration on the outside of the tower which is now inside the house created by Arabs and Spaniards who occupied the city at one time.
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