Our tail feathers were dragging a bit this morning since we had such a late night. Not to mention sleeping in a strange place--although the bed is very comfy and a king size to boot, so no complaints! We took a food tour and were only about a 5 minute walk from the meeting place. Our guide, Marco, actually owns the company and was quite the character. He is a native of Palermo and you could tell he loves his job. Everywhere we went, people were calling out to him and joking with him. He took us to the market first, explaining that they typically don't sell fresh fish on Mondays, but Tuesday is a holiday here in Sicily, so all the stores will be closed. They like to have a barbecue with family and friends to celebrate--it's their Liberation Day, which I think he said was when the allied forces drove out the Nazi's and they took over from Mussolini...but don't quote me on that, we got a lot of Italian history yesterday and I may be confusing it with something else. :) We stopped at a small cafe for our first bite, sampled an Arancina, which is a ball of rice coated in bread crumbs and filled with a yummy meat mixture, then deep fried. Oh my, quite tasty!! We also had a taste of a Panella and Cazzilli, which was a flat shaped dough filled with chick peas and deep fried. It was also good, even Rich ate all of his. :) We walked through a lot of small streets, with Marco pointing out interesting buildings and giving us tidbits of life in Palermo. All along the streets were vendors selling all kinds of stuff--and great prices! A really nice pair of men's walking shoes were only €10! Ladies dresses for €20, and magnets galore. LOL Our next stop was for a spleen sandwich, which is Pani ca' Meusa in Italian. The spleen and lungs of a pig (?--I think that's what he said) are boiled in seasonings, then thinly sliced and served on a roll with onions and a squeeze of lemon. I ate about half of my half, the flavor was good but I found it to be a texture thing--kind of chewy and fatty, so I pitched the rest. Rich liked it. A bar was nearby and we stopped in for a drink of our choice, and had some fresh olives with sheep cheese and bread, along with two different types of pizza. One had black olives and the other fresh anchovies, so Rich didn't eat either, although he did try a bite of each. I thought both were good and really liked the olives. They were green, huge and not very salty. Marco had bought them from a stall in the market--a huge bag was only €2! I opted for a beer and it was the coldest, most delicious beer! I had another one, it was that good. Called Forst, yum! And only €1, so a bargain too! Rich tried the white wine and gave me a sip, it was good but I was happy with my beer. Final stop was for a Cannoli--freshly made when we arrived and just as good as it looks in the picture! I was very full at this point and exhausted, we'd been walking for almost 4 1/2 hours, and my back was quite aware of it. We said our goodbyes and Rich found a shortcut back to our apartment using back streets and we were home in around 10 minutes. I started doing laundry--these European washers take almost 2 hours to do one small load!! And then you have to hang them outside to dry. I only got two loads done, about 3 to go--good thing we've got a down day tomorrow! :) Around 8:30, my left eye started secreting goo--I've got a darned eye infection! And of course, tomorrow is a holiday so probably every where will be closed. Bummer!!