Two night and three days in Rome later, decided it was time to see a different aspect of Italy.
Matt felt the same, (although between you and me (and I've decided not to share the existence of my blog with any of my fellow travellers, since I might talk about them in it) Matt would probably follow me anywhere, he's kind of a pushover regarding where we go, what we do, I can't take more than a day with him before I get mad at something or other... and he lets me)) so together we took the Tuesday night train and arrived in
Palermo in the northwest of the island yesterday morning. We toured the capital,
then hopped an afternoon train south to Agrigento, which we found
expensive and tourist driven, in the off-season, so we didn't stay. It
was unfortunate because the remains by the sea are supposed to be
spectacular.
Arrived last night in Catania, eastern side of Sicily. GREAT hostel; good food (It's mostly just toast and jam, butter if you're lucky, good coffee if you're lucky. So basically if the bread is good quality, I say the hostel food is good. Sliced white bread = bad hostel food, as does presence of margarine. Just FYI.) This place is big, fun people, late night bar, restaurant attached the hostel
with a cave and stream running literally underneath it... beautiful. If they had red and white checkered tablecloths, I'd definitely be a sucker for bringing my baby back here some day.
I am, however, about to kill Matt so today we'll split up and tomorrow we'll probably tour/hike/climb/ride up mt. Etna, an active volcano that essentially formed Sicily, and last erupted in 2003. Before that, erupted in 2001... so possibly it's overdue!
love,
Justina
PS One thing about Palermo is that I finally found the source of all the Carnival Confetti... see, throughout the trip, starting in Spain, I have seen confetti everywhere. But the thing is, it's the SAME confetti. Same shapes and colors. Everywhere. Every city. Random places. I got to feeling like someone was just one step ahead of me, everywhere I went! Not only that, but first, the only evidence of Carnival was kids dressed up every day. Little kids. But then, on the train to Palermo, I saw adolescents dressed up. Big step up. Then, finally, in Palermo, we saw two kids HOLDING BAGS OF CONFETTI. Oddly, the waterfront where we saw them boasted benches that were painted, totally and anachronistically, like confetti. White with colored dots all over them... I digress. Anyway, finally in Catania last night, night of Fat Tuesday, we found Carnival. Adults dressed up. But I was too tired to go out, we just drank a bottle of wine in the hostel and chatted with a French girl who works here and showed up the cave.
