July 2 - Acireale

Unfortunately, leaders do not have a home stay. We are staying at a hotel in Acireale. It's a nice, older hotel in town with a sweeping marble staircase.

With no "delegate responsibilities" we could sleep in.  So,  of course,  I was up at 5:30. I lounged around,  though, and enjoyed the down time.

We found a laundry close to the hotel and dropped off our clothes. Mine was mostly t-shirts and underwear and my pajamas. When I got it back, everything (minus underwear) was pressed,  even my pajamas! I almost felt guilty sleeping in them last night.

We explored the town a little in the morning and decided to go to the beach in the afternoon. That was an adventure!

First of all, my companions decided to walk to the beach instead of taking the bus. One if the locals said it would take a long time on the bus and it was only a 20 -minute walk. The town is on the top of a hill. The walk down was along a rock path which wove back and forth the entire way down. It took close to an hour.

The Siciliano have a much different concept of "beach" than Americans have. While beautiful, there is absolutely no sand.  It is entirely rocks. They had a wooden platform for sunning and stairs down to the water. The stairs continue into the water. When I stepped off of the stairs into the water,  there were rocks for about two steps,  then nothing! I found a rock close to the stairs and stayed near it. Most of the time I just floated or tread water,  but it was good to be in the sea. To dry off,  we joined the locals and sunned on the rocks by the shore.

After the trip down,  we decided to take the bus back to the hotel. I inquired as to where we would find the stop,  and learned it was not to far: by the "little church" in the piazza. No problem,  except one we got there, we found it would be a two-hour wait.  After much discussion and assistance, we managed to acquire a
taxi and return to the hotel.

For dinner we found a neat pizzaria with outdoor seating. It was very quaint, and we had a blast!

Tomorrow we'll meet up with the delegates took go to Mt. Etna, and then they'll have one more night with their home stay families.