Sicily

A much belated recap of Valentine's weekend in Sicily. It has been hard to bring myself to write about the rain filled island that I ended up throwing up all over.

4:30 a.m. came way too early Friday morning as Mike, Shane, and I had gone out looking for soccer jerseys that were on sale the night before. We had ended up meeting two couples from the UK and they wanted to hear all about the states, complimenting our straight teeth, and telling us all about Liverpool Football.

A slight delay checking in/getting through security as Mike had forgotten his passport, but 28 students, a priest, and a professor boarded the plane and made it to Palermo safely by 8:00 a.m.

We hit the ground running and drove about an hour each to Monreale-Segesta-Selinunte-Agrigento.

The flight itself was only about 45 minuti. We reached altitude and then landed again. It could have been 5 hours for all I know, I slept the whole time and woke up as we all thought we were for sure landing in the water. Once we arrived in Palermo, we hopped right on the bus. We drove to Monreale, which is still in the province of Palermo. There we went to the Cathedral of Monreale. It was a beautiful church dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. We then walked around the courtyard of the cloister, where the nuns still live. We then hopped back on the bus and drove to Segesta. In Segesta, we visited the Doric Temple and the Greek Theater (there is a lot of Greek and Roman history in Sicily because Sicily was conquered by both the Romans and the Greeks).

We got some lunch and got back on the bus. We drove to Selinunte, where we visited more Greek temples! There are five temples situated together. (Notice the Selinunte sweatshirt I purchased, I fit right in...)Side note: I failed to mention the outrageous forms of precipitation we experienced. It poured in Monreale, but remained sunny. It snowed while we were on the bus, it poured again, then was sunny, then it hailed at the Greek theater, and at the temples in Selinunte. At least you can always spy my red jacket.

After the hurricane subsided, we made it to the bus and drove to Agrigento, where we would be staying for the night. Agrigento is on the southern coast of Sicily. We then went to dinner at a local trattoria. It was about 8:30 when we went to dinner. Dinner in Italy is long and late. We had a delicious four course meal of pasta, chicken, salad (you eat salad after your meal before dessert...strange?), and dessert- and of course good wine. We walked back to the hotel stuffed and tired from a long day.

The next day (Saturday 2/13) we packed up and were back on the bus by 10:00am. We drove to the valley of the temples in Agrigento. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We walked around the temples dedicated to Zeus, Hercules, and Hera. In the process we got stuck in the middle of a folk music festival. Many young Italian bambini were dressed in folk outfits, singing and dancing in a parade. We drove to Piazza Armerina, where we saw the richest, largest, and most complex Roman mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale.

Then we drove, yes, in the bus, to Taormina, where we would be staying for the night. We checked into our hotel, Hotel Andromaco. Our hotel was awesome- much nicer than the first night. We went to dinner, which was even better than the night before. Carnivale was being celebrated in Taormina, so we all went to a local bar. Our professor bought us all a drink (again, strange).The temples all started to look the same after a while...

Sunday (February 14) we ate breakfast, packed up, and walked to the Greek/Roman theater in Taormina. There was some of the most intense rain I have ever experienced. We hopped on the bus and drove to the airport in Catania- I may or may not have thrown up the whole time. We took another 45 minute flight home to Rome.

Bad news: Calcio was cancelled last week because of rain- I'll take rain over snow though... But I will keep the calcio updates coming as tonight - Team Chocolate faces Team Azalea.