We made it safe and sound to Catania, Sicily - a victory for my first attempt to book seats on a discount Italian airlines on an all-Italian website!  At the airport, we got ourselves Italian SIM cards for our cell phones, so you can tear up our old numbers.  Here are our new numbers (as you would dial them from the U.S): Diana: 011-39-331-496-6251, Allen: 011-39-331-584-7527.  They have a great system here - you buy these prepaid SIM cards and then can add more funds at any ATM or tobacco shop.  However, calls are quite expensive and I don't think we can receive messages (but we haven't tried yet).

Catania is absolutely gorgeous - an ancient city with massive stone buildings and cobblestone streets, with Mount Etna looming in the distance.  We haven't had much of a chance to explore yet, since we're both still sick with colds, but our hotel is right in the middle of town, near the Duomo and the main shopping street, which is closed to vehicular traffic.  The weather is in the 60s and sunny, warm enough to sit out at a cafe and sip your thimbleful of coffee.  We can take day trips to Siracusa, Taormina, and Mt. Etna, which we plan to do once we're feeling a bit better.  But this is a perfect place to recuperate, and there's nowhere else we have to be, so as long as we can find a store that sells Kleenex we'll be all set!