Now this is what I call Sicily!

*Anything highlighted are things I remember throughout the week and add them.

Sat. Jan 21 - Last night, I went and saw Rent and was not too impressed. I actually wasn't impressed at all. Anyways....Today was quite an adventure. I was the ITT Representative for this trip, so I go for free and just make sure everything goes okay since it's a contracted company that we use for this event. At 9am 15 people and I get picked up by a company called Acquaterra that does outdoor adventure guiding around Sicily. I rode by myself with the tour guide and the interpreter, Stefano and Guisy. They told me we were headed to the Gole dell Alcantara (Alcantara Gorge) near Messina in the Valle Alcantara at the bottom of Mt Etna. Most people thought we were going to be white-water rafting, but since the water was too low we went Hydro-Speeding. Let me tell ya, this is freakin hilarious. It's basically glorified boogie boards that you paddle with your flippers down a river with a bunch of rapids and giant rocks. Here's how dangerous this is to put it in perspective. The guides were in full-sized kayaks and we were on styrofoam boards paddling through the rapids getting bounced off rocks and running into the person(s) in front of us. The water was 8*C, so roughly 46*F and we went 3 1/2 km down the gorge. Yes, the scenery was beautiful but it was hard to enjoy while still freezing in full-body 5mm neoprene suits, lifejackets, and water boots and swallowing nasty water constantly from laughing in pain so much. Needless to say, I'm gonna talk to my boss and tell her that we shouldn't do the trip anymore. The customer payed $51 to do this and it was cold, painful, and manual powered excercise. White-water rafting would have been much more fun. The drive through the Alcantara Valley was so amazing though. The hills and mountains surrounded you and cities were practically built into the hillsides. There were beautiful arched bridges and the farmland was well kept. I got back around 4:30 and went and ate with my new friend, Meagan. We caught the NAS shuttle to downtown Catania at 7pm to grab a beer and she showed me around downtown. As soon as I stepped off the bus, I realized that I was now officially in Italy. The streets were filled with Baroque architecture, faces in the building walls, giant statues in the Centro, the beautifully lit up Cathedral of St. Agata in the Piazza Duomo, and so much more that you see when you look at pictures. We walked the busy streets, checked out the lovely 80's fashion that is well and alive here, the greasy hair, the well manicured mullets, the women in stilettos and barely-there skirts, and all the other funny things while looking for an Irish pub called Waxy O'Connors. We couldn't find it to save our lives, but Meagan told me I had to ask a guy where it was in Italian. I didnt do so well, but we did find it eventually. I had 3, 1/2 pints of Kilkenny Ale which is made by Guiness. I'm saving my first Guiness experience for Dublin (fingers crossed). We didn't stay there long because we were catching the 11 shuttle, but we did grab a pizza on the way back. It was only .80 euros which is less than a dollar. CHEAP! After that, I came home, found out Jeff went camping with some friends from his voicemail, and went to bed.

Sun Jan 22 - I knew today was going to be amazing! Meagan picked me up 9am and we were off to explore Enna and Piazza Armerina. She has only been here a few months, so this was her first time outside of Catania, Etna, and base. We took the Autostata A19 to Enna where I saw the most gorgeous scenery of my life. Glacier National Park is a close second though. To describe it, it looked like the scenes in Lord of the Rings I and what you would imagine the rolling hills of Ireland would look like. It was all bright green, mountainous, and giant soft hills. There were ruins of castles and temples scattered all over the land. It was really cool when they'd be on the top of a hill or mountain and it was part of the silhouette of the land. Someone later that day told us that Sicily has more ruins that all of Italy combined. We climbed up to Enna through large switchbacks and steep hills to find a really old and traditional town on top of a mountain. Here, we walked to the Lombardio Castle and walked all through it. We were 2 of the 4 visitors there. You could go up into the watch towers and into the courtyards. After the Castle, we walked through town up and down cobblestone streets and churches were on every corner. We got a lot of ugly stares and negative comments, but that's pretty normal in old towns like that for Americans. She's got long blonde hair so there's no hiding it. After Enna, we drove to Piazza Armerina which ended up being way better than Enna. It took about an 1 1/2 hours to find our destination, the Villa Romana Castle. We finally did and couldn't even see from the parking lot b/c it was recently excavated in 1981 due to it being about 5m underground. Here are the world famous mosaics that depict Hercules & Zeus, Medusa, the Roman Empire, the Bikini Girls, little cupids, and so much more that described the conquering of this country. The excavation is almost complete and most of it is well maintained. It is amazing to know that this entire castle was dug up. Thermal baths, spas, public toilettes, columns (lots of columns!), rooms where the Emperor slept, and a bunch of other cool things to learn about. Two Americans, Cheryl and her husband Richard, asked us if we would like to join their tour from a crazy, fast speaking tour guide that wasn't to fresh on his English. Richard told us he'd pay for it if we just wanted to tag along. We were both really glad we did because they were great people from Idaho, ex military, and with the history of this place described to us, the stories in the mosaics came alive and the structure meant so much more than to the naked eye. We were there for about 3 hours. After that, we drove into the actual town and saw the Palazzo Trigona which is a temple with a huge green dome, several churches, the famous cobblestone streets, and the statues all over the town. We stopped and ate some Gelato before we headed back home. I also stopped at a little shop and bought a bottle of Pinot Noir. He wrapped it so beautifully that I'll probably just bring it home and drink it later. It was dark by the time we left but the drive home was still marvelous. Sicilians don't waste their land. All of the towns are stacked high and take up the littlest amount of space. We would be driving and just see little towns all lit up randomly throughout the countryside. We got back and I went back to her apartment and watched Wedding Crashers before she brought me home. She lives in Motta, which is only a 5 minute drive from Sigonella. I went home, talked to Jeff and went to bed.