On Sunday we had an excursion to Palermo, the capital of Sicily that houses more than 150 churches, according to our guide. After visiting few of the churches and the impressing cathedral, which is build in many different architectural styles, our bus continued to the cathedral in Monreale, 8 kilometers from Palermo. On our way to Monreale, we stopped to have lunch at the restaurant that is located on the top floor of Hotel Guglielmo. I will not dwell on the food, which was standard. I will dwell on another aspect of the restaurant: its floor rotates. The walls of the restaurant are nothing but glass, to allow the visitors to appreciate the landscape. To add to the eating experience the architect added a rotating floor, so that one will be able to see all the land that surrounds the hotel, and not only one portion of it. Brilliant, is it not.

Unfortunately, the correct answer is Not. I do not know whether you have ever had the experience of eating while rotating. This is worse than eating while on an airplane. You feel dizzy, and food is not the first thing that comes to your mind. A rotating restaurant seems a great idea: something that will attract tourists, who will be willing to pay extra for the once-in-a-lifetime meal. In fact, the tourists were dizzy, paid extra for the dubious pleasure, and the engine that rotates the floor made a lot of noise, so that the music had to be turned full-volume to cover the horrible noise.

I am sure that this carousel cost a lot for the proprietor. Either not enough thought has been put in the matter before it was installed, or maybe this is the first place ever it was tried, and so architects did not know the effect of rotation on diners. But now that the construction cost is sunk, why do they keep on operating this carousel, instead of letting people enjoy the view without moving around? We were all relieved when, after one full round, the floor stopped moving and we could finish our meal peacefully.