This morning we piled into the car to drive across Sicily to get to Sigonella.
Side Note: I forgot to mention that I can only imagine what housekeeping thought had happened in our hotel bathroom. We washed and rubbed all the mud off of everything, which of course left a huge mess. It didn't look pretty if you know what I mean.
Anyway, here are a bunch of drive-by photos:
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
People from Sicily consider themselves Sicilian first and Italian second.
Sicilian is considered a dialect of Italian, but really it's so different it's basically its own language.
The Mafia originated here, but Sicilians are trying hard to separate themselves from the world of organized crime.
Most of Sicily's landscape is hilly and rugged.
Supposedly, the Straight of Messina (which we crossed to get from the mainland to Sicily) is the home of Charibdys and Scylla. Those of you who remember the Odyssey will know them as the monsters Odysseus had to pass through to continue on his voyage.
The Sonnet was created in Sicily by Giacomo da Lentini. If you don't remember high school English, a sonnet is a poem of 14 lines made up of three sets of quatrains and one couplet. It is written in iambic pentameter and was popular with Shakespeare.
We decided we'd try to go up Etna before getting to Sigonella. On our first attempt we went up a less used road and eventually had to turn back because of the snow. Our second attempt was much more successful; however, it quickly became clear that we wouldn't be able to take the cable car to the very top and it was too cloudy/foggy/snowy. Oh well.
You can see it's bright and sunny down below Etna, but you can also see the looming cloud layer above us - into which we're going to drive.
Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe. It stands at just shy of 11,000 feet.
Remember when I said it was cloudy? This was what about 1/3 of the drive up Etna looked like.
We made it to the top, or as far as the public are allowed to drive, but there were no cable cars to the caldera today. We wouldn't be able to see anything even it they were running. So we got a hot beverage at the little cafe up here and bought a souvenir hat for our friend Nick.
Dan and Ta climbed the parking lot snow pile. Because....why not?
We headed back down Etna after this.
Our little car has been on a few adventures, even just on this trip!
Looming cloud, land below Etna in the sun, and snowy Etna.
Selfie on the way down to prove we were here!
Yes, it's snowing.
We got to Sigonella in the evening and had some nonsense about which base we were supposed to be staying on and some more nonsense about at which Navy Lodge/Navy Gateway Inn & Suites we were supposed to be. There are two disparate parts to base and three hotels - hence the confusion. We finally got settled and decided to get something to eat, only we couldn't because it was a Federal Holiday and everything on base was closed. We managed to discover an Irish pub across and down the street a bit, where we each got a ginormous cheeseburger and a few beers.
This concludes our adventures for today.
