partial eclipse

and everything went wrong. My camera of 15 years broke, my wrist watch band is torn, my brand new 6 euros cigarrette lighter no longer works. A car accident on our way down from Taormina. A near accident when our driver failed to slow down and almost slammed into the lines of cars in front of the highway toll. luckily there's some space between 2 cars, so he jammed the minibus there and the lady in the car on our right yelled with lots of Italian hand gestures. Chey complained she felt something funny and because it's a partial eclipse today. I've asked 'partial elipse of what? The sun, the moon?' and Howard thought it was the eclipse of the sun and the moon! Neither T nor I knew about this eclipse until we saw the crescent reflections on the ground.

Partial Eclipse

Eclipse indeed and everything went wrong today. And we are in Siracusa, exploring the greek and roman theaters.

Teatro Greco

Off to Catania now.

Yesterday we paid tribute to the lovely quaint town of Cefalu. A place Hippo would like very much to return and spend more time. By the north side of the island, narrow cobblestoned streets, a wonderful baroque cathedral, a bit rundown but romantic.

In Catania, the group got shaved ice and Tomo's cup came with a big piece of broken glass, no extra euro needed! Good thing he didnt cut his tongue. The old town square has the replica of the elephant holding the obelisk. Now I cant remember where this copy came from. We didnt spend much time here. Just a few pictures of the square and the cathedral and off we went. Our minibus had a flat tired and so we all had the experience of seeing Sicilians patching a tire. First of its kind. Back to Taormina with pizza dinner and the bus up to our wonderful hotel with gorgeous views of Etna, didnt show up. We ended up taking 3 taxis, 12 euros each, to the hotel. Our first experience of unreliable Sicilian public transport and expensive taxis. Tho altogether, not a bad day.