Day 9: Castle

By the end of the day when I sit down to write these either one of two things happen: A) I'm utterly exhausted or B) My Internet connection is sucky. Most of the time these two things happen simultaneously. Therefore I will provably be posting these the morning (or day) after as I am today.

When we woke up this morning after a restful sleep it was 70 degrees. Naturally we would pick the COLDEST portion of the day to visit the neighbors (Mattia's friend Damiano) and take a swim in their pool. It was freezing. To make matters worse it was also windy so we all just kind of huddled and hoped we wouldn't die. Some of Mattia's other friends were at the pool as well and they were very friendly.

We had lunch and then wandered up to the boys room where we snoozed until 4 when we drove into Catania.

We first went to a sports store to pick up shoes suitable for wading into the river (our trip for Monday). The boys were finished after a few seconds and ran outside to play basketball. They even made a new dog friend.






Our next stop was the castle. It was in the middle of the city. How people can walk past it every day without revealing in its history I do not understand. Mattia found it incredibly boring and ugly but I loved it. It is now a museum filled with ancient artwork. Mrs. Hobbs would be proud.







































I have way too many pictures of this and not enough room to put them all so here are a couple.

Back in the car we drove to a section of town where you there a giant pit and inside is an excavated portion of old Catania. This was the city before it was covered in lava and rebuilt.









They uncovered an amphitheater so this is what this is.









It's amazing to see and really puts in perspective just how young America is.



We then walked to a park (equivalent to that of Central Park) and strolled around for a bit.



























Shopping was next where I picked up some very secret presents and then it was dinner. We went to a pretty fancy place and got huge platters full of food. I also tried Sangria for the first time and that was pretty good. Since I was skyping with my mom at the time they ordered food, they ordered for me and I had no idea what I was getting until I got it.









I wound up getting pork, sausage, bacon wrapped onions, French fries, and salad. Everyone else but Mariella (she got what I got) got the same but a horse meat meatball instead of the bacon. Let me repeat... a HORSE meat meatball. I shiver thinking about it.



As we were eating, gypsies wandered up and tried to sell us toys and knick knacks. They wouldn't leave even when we told them to stop multiple times. A highlight was when one of them put a head massager on Federico and he flipped out.






The city at night was absolutely beautiful.










I crave to know what it's like to live here permanently.