We hung around the pool at the farm, reading and puttzing and finally headed in to town for a cappuccino and to shop at the local ARD (Discount grocery store). As we hopped into the car we noted that the outside temperature was 41C so we quickly closed the car windows and cranked on the air.
I am going to say something here that none of you would ever expect me to say: Shopping in the grocery store was fun! It’s fun because everything you pick up you have to try and figure out what it is. Nothing at all is in English and even the pictures on the package don’t help you out! It’s like a “What’s for dinner” roulette game. You don’t know what you’re going to eat until you open the package! Of interest in the stores, is that they don’t refrigerate milk or eggs. They sit in an aisle with everything else.
After shopping, we decided to go to the top of Mt. Etna, driving of course, as there was no way we were walking anywhere today in this heat. We pointed the car in the up direction and eventually found our way to a tiny stone covered road that lead us as high as we could drive. In fact, it lead us to the point where, if we were not in our right minds, we could have hiked the remaining 4 km to the top. Even though the warm volcanic breeze was cooling for us, we noted that the temperature was now only 40C so we opted not to do the hike. We were high enough to be above the cracks in the volcano that allow steam to escape. We couldn’t walk or drive to the crevices; they were fenced off, thus stopping us from driving the car into them! Lots of people live at the top of the volcano. I guess they haven’t seen the Pompeii movie.
We were a little low on gasoline in the car on the way home so I put it in neutral and we coasted from top to bottom. On the way down we crept our way to an abandoned house built from a mixture of local and lava rock. The panoramic picture at the top of this post is the driveway to the place. Look in the background of the photo, to the middle left; you will see a group of tiny buildings; that is the town of Paterno; our destination by coasting.
It is 7:08 PM as I type this. We will have dinner soon (see the sausage photo). We have been trying to eater later and later each day so we are on Italian dining hours. For those of you also wondering about food, Keith has been doing a great job preparing it. We had incredible scrambled eggs for breakfast made of room temperature eggs, olives and some kind of pepper cheese we bought the other day. Tonight we are having pasta with sausage and peppered tomatoes. Tonight’s wine cost 1,69. Life is good! We still look like tourists!
PS: We found a gas station and topped up.
PPS: Gas is E1,79 per litre.
PPSS: I have a new dog friend who has been hanging with me all afternoon. She looks like Waggs.
I am going to say something here that none of you would ever expect me to say: Shopping in the grocery store was fun! It’s fun because everything you pick up you have to try and figure out what it is. Nothing at all is in English and even the pictures on the package don’t help you out! It’s like a “What’s for dinner” roulette game. You don’t know what you’re going to eat until you open the package! Of interest in the stores, is that they don’t refrigerate milk or eggs. They sit in an aisle with everything else.
After shopping, we decided to go to the top of Mt. Etna, driving of course, as there was no way we were walking anywhere today in this heat. We pointed the car in the up direction and eventually found our way to a tiny stone covered road that lead us as high as we could drive. In fact, it lead us to the point where, if we were not in our right minds, we could have hiked the remaining 4 km to the top. Even though the warm volcanic breeze was cooling for us, we noted that the temperature was now only 40C so we opted not to do the hike. We were high enough to be above the cracks in the volcano that allow steam to escape. We couldn’t walk or drive to the crevices; they were fenced off, thus stopping us from driving the car into them! Lots of people live at the top of the volcano. I guess they haven’t seen the Pompeii movie.
We were a little low on gasoline in the car on the way home so I put it in neutral and we coasted from top to bottom. On the way down we crept our way to an abandoned house built from a mixture of local and lava rock. The panoramic picture at the top of this post is the driveway to the place. Look in the background of the photo, to the middle left; you will see a group of tiny buildings; that is the town of Paterno; our destination by coasting.
It is 7:08 PM as I type this. We will have dinner soon (see the sausage photo). We have been trying to eater later and later each day so we are on Italian dining hours. For those of you also wondering about food, Keith has been doing a great job preparing it. We had incredible scrambled eggs for breakfast made of room temperature eggs, olives and some kind of pepper cheese we bought the other day. Tonight we are having pasta with sausage and peppered tomatoes. Tonight’s wine cost 1,69. Life is good! We still look like tourists!
PS: We found a gas station and topped up.
PPS: Gas is E1,79 per litre.
PPSS: I have a new dog friend who has been hanging with me all afternoon. She looks like Waggs.
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