Well, SOMEONE has not kept HIS end of the deal and posted his comments on our blog!  Allen is home in the hotel room putting the final touches on his screenplay so he can get it mailed out and entered in various screenwriting contests which close on March 1.  So he sent me out into the dark night to our favorite internet "point", as they call it here.  It's late on Saturday night, and the whole town (or at least everyone under 30) is walking along the main drag, Via Etnea (which appropriately leads to Mt. Etna, visually if not physically), checking each other out, wanting to see and be seen.  Even the high-end clothing shops are open, catering to the crowds.  The streets, which are older than cobblestone - more like volcanic rock flat paving stones - are closed to cars and shoulder-to-shoulder with revelers.  We can't claim to have checked out the nightlife here but there is ample evidence of it.  For example, the sidewalks are still coated with confetti and silly string from the various celebrations: Carnavale and the Feast of St. Agatha, the local patron saint.  (She had her breasts cut off by the Romans, as our trips to local museums revealed in graphic detail.)

I wandered about 3 blocks from the hotel today and found this amazing medieval castle, built in the early 1300s and looking just like something out of a movie set, turrets and moat and all.  (The streets are just narrow enough, and the buildings just tall enough, to leave gems like this hiding in plain sight.)  It has been reopened as a civic museum (free!), and though not listed in our guidebook was a wonderful find.  In addition to the fascination of all the nooks and crannies of the castle itself, many of which you could walk or look into, there was a marvelous collection of Greek and Etruscan artifacts found in this city dating back as far as the 5th-6th centuries B.C. (assuming I understood the Italian descriptions correctly!).  It was practically deserted, and then on our way out we happened across a cute little cafe that is seeking to be a chic hotspot but unfortunately is just far enough off the beaten trail to be invisible to tourists.  For 9 euros each ($12), we had the "turistico" menu of antipasto (salami, cheese, olives, peppers), pasta course, meat course, vegetable course, wine and bottled water.  Of course that was more than one human being could eat for an entire day.  Or should I say, "should eat".  Because we did.

Tomorrow we decided to splurge and take a guided tour of Mt. Etna.  It's cheap to get there by bus, but I was a little worried that if we take the first bus of the day and return on the last, we still won't be able to walk to most of the interesting sites, which are apparently several hours above the bus stop.  So cross your fingers that it doesn't erupt tomorrow, and if we live to tell the tale, ONE of us will post it right here when we return!