M:

I slept for nearly 11 hours (better then the 4 the night before) and the worst of the cold seemed to have passed.

The first task is usually to check the emails. That went fine in the morning. But brace yourself for further developments.

The weather forecast was for showers, then worse tomorrow and better on Thursday, so we decided to try an Etna excursion on Thursday. We sent an email last night (Monday) and await a reply - probably later today (Tuesday). Another factor was that today is a public holiday. We had checked on what was open at the Tourist info yesterday, and it seemed that most museums etc would be open, but many shops would be closed.

We set off to look for the Museum at the Castello Ursino, but as consequence of my having misread the map, we ended up at the Greco-Roman Theatre instead. No problem.

The Romans built this theatre in the 1st or 2nd centuries AD, on the remains of a pre-existing Greek one. It could seat up to 7000 to view performances, including re-enactments of naval battles if they flooded the orchestra (very apt since that is how it was when we saw it due to a combination of rain and bad drainage!). I suspect the re-enactments were in miniature.

Standing on the seats of the amphitheatre, it is difficult to imagine that people were doing the same thing over 2000 years ago. No wonder we Aussies have something of a cultural cringe. On the other hand, the Italians take this stuff very much for granted. One of the nice things about the theatre restoration was that they kept parts of significant buildings that had been attached to the ruins at different periods up to the 19th Century - giving an insight not only into daily life then, but into attitudes to antiquity.

We decided to have lunch at a small cafe near the fish market on Via Pardo. 2 panini, made fresh - chicken breast and salad, and sausage (local) and onion, with chinotto and limonata. We did find Castello Ursino, which is currently doing a display of liturgical vestments and other artefacts. The Castle itself was built in the middle of the 13th Century. Originally the castle had been on the shore, but a vocanic eruption filled the moat and distanced it from the sea. (A: among the displays a binder to keep a gentleman's moustache flat while sleeping, and a funeral mask . Best not to confuse the two)

After our visit, time for "una sosta" - coffee and pastry. We managed this for 3 euro at a local bar!(A: It was to die for. What we thought was custard was actually white chocolate cream)

While the weather held, we decided to take the "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus from the Duomo. It was something of an experience. Advertised at 5 euro, you paid an extra 2 for earphones for a translated commentary. We got on, and then travelled past several sights without commentary to be asked to change bus - reasons not clear - in front of the port (of less than blessed memory!).

We got under way with the new bus. Our intention was to do the full circuit and consider our options. The commentary was quite informative, and as we went along, we became aware of the significance of the Bellini Gardens , which were quite close to "home" so decided to go around again, and finish there, while the weather held.

Between the Duomo and the port the second time we got the commentary that we didn't get the first time. It pays to hang in! Then, at the port, everyone was getting off the bus. After some inquiries, we discovered we could stay, but the bus then waited about 20 minutes before it set off again. We got off at the gardens and had a nice walk through the grounds, which seem to serve as a tribute to many significant men (only men) whom we presume were Catanian.

When we got back to the flat, we discovered we had internet troubles.

We have had a very patchy experience with the internet here. The dongle which comes with the apartment worked fine on the morning of our first full day, but seems to have gone all temperamental while we were out during the day. It logs on to Wind (what a lovely name for an internet provider) but then goes on to display a number of less than endearing behaviours. (a) refuses to find anything on Explorer - even after several requests; (b) raises false hope by accessing a site or two, then spits the dummy and refuses to cooperate; or (c) lets you do a search on Bing (its default engine) and then reuses to follow any links. None of these helps you keep in touch with the outside world - or indeed your sanity! We managed to squeeze a message out to Carmine when it was behaving itself briefly. We'll see what happens.

We decided to see what was on offer at those local trattorie or pizza bars that were open. After finding several closed, and other "tavole calde" with limited options, we went to a trattoria a block away called Don Tiriddu. At 7.30 we were the first customers, and three staff were certainly neither stretched nor overly attentive. After all AC Milan were playing in the Champions League and it was on both screens. Anne had Pesce spada involtini (swordfish rolled with cheese and bread crumbs - a kind of marine swiss roll) and I had veal. Both of us had salad and "patatine fritte" - which sounds so much less fattening that chips! The veal wasn't the best of cuts - but when you throw in bread and a half litre of house red for 1.50 and a total bill of E25, it wasn't a bad effort.

We had the energy to watch the rest of "Ricordati di me" - a rather bleak look at self actualisation and relationships gone stale, and lightened up with one of the many shows in English that Beth and Elias loaded on the hard drive - Modern Family. Thanks guys.