We have been enjoying Mondello beach as promised. Every day is hot with blue skies, so hot that you need lots of sun tan lotion and a large brolly. The Tyrrhenian sea is a welcome respite from the scorching sun and crystal clear, it is also very salty. For €4 you can use a communal sun bathing area that provides an open marquee, changing rooms and showers. As we are staying in the city centre we take the bus to the beach, which is sometimes so full it goes straight past! It is quite a bumpy ride as the bus driver weaves around the other road users who insist on using the same piece of road. It's at these times that we miss the motorbike especially as there are so many bikes and scooters on the road. They swerve about through the traffic and along the back streets in syncronisation with other road users, managing to squeeze through the smallest gap at breakneck speeds. It takes real courage here to step onto a zebra crossing when traffic is hurtling towards you, unless your foot is on the crossing nothing stops, and even then traffic drives around you. It is quite miraculous to reach the otherside. On the days we haven't been to the beach we have visited Cefalu further along the coast on the train, the botanical gardens and various churches and cathedrals which are beautiful inside and very cool and peaceful.

One of the things we have noticed is that Sicilian people talk a lot all the time. On the street or sitting on the bus, it is so noisy as they are all having animated conversations. When they don't have anyone to talk to they phone someone and have the same animated conversation on their phone. Walking through the city centre nearly every person is talking on a mobile (as well as most car drivers). We even saw a man on a scooter texting as he rode along!

We have a couple more days to explore before we depart on Saturday for Budapest, via Rome airports, so tomorrow we are visiting the museum of technology at the university (Chris' day out).