Wednesday Aug 9

Our international flight was a bit bumpy, but otherwise our flights were fine. Our guide, Ciro and our driver, Rosario picked us up in Catania at the airport and then we drove to Mt. Etna and did some hiking and ate a little pizza! Ciro didn't even have a sign for us in the airport, he just recognized us and introduced himself, which was really nice and cool. We saw a lot of hardened lava and met a stray dog. We also hiked up a huge hill to get a view of all the craters we were walking along the edge of. We drove to Taormina and dropped our stuff off at the hotel. We stayed in a very nice four star hotel with a pool and beautiful tile everywhere! The room has a balcony with an amazing view of Mt. Etna and the sea, and at night, we could hear the hum of music and nightlife in the town. We walked into town and ate dinner at Mamma Rosa, where we had some delicious mozzarella and fresh tomatoes, squid ink ravioli and pizza with sardines and red pepper! Mike was really excited to try sardines in Italy, these ones were just a little better than home though. All of my Italy knowledge is slowly coming back to me (like that they don't usually give you ice, and that there is usually a charge to sit while you eat). We walked around a bit and went back to the hotel and went to sleep! We got a really good night's rest because we hadn't slept much since before we left Philly.