Toarmina to Catania
Again our hotel provided an excellent breakfast and we set out to explore more of the island before catching our boat to Naples. This is how we ended up in the Jeep adventure in Toarmina (click here).
The weather was turning a bit nasty and after our previous close shaves I was looking for something a bit more relaxing so we decided not to go to the top of Mount Etna. We could clearly see that the volcano was not erupting or dong anything exciting, so the shopper prevailed. Off we went to one of the biggest purpose built designer villages I've ever seen. It was much larger than a similar one we went to in California but featured many of the same outlets. There was no sign of poverty here. The prevailing impression was of considerable Sicilian middle class prosperity in addition to a surprising number of tourists from other parts of Europe who may have come to Sicily just to buy clothes. While I might complain about hours waiting around, these places provide a fascinating insight into contemporary society. And this one provided a tasty pizza and excellent coffee to dull the pain of boredom.
In the end I bought something and Wendy didn't because I see shops as places where you get things you might need and part with money in exchange, while she sees them as places where you ponder every garment on display and then pass on to the next. Moreover when they are in a foreign country you can't easily buy them and then take them back the following day. I was done in about 15 minutes. She was not done in two hours.
The boat was to sail from Catania late that evening. We had tickets purchased on-line. We waited to board having arrived with plenty of time so that I could return the car miles away, beyond the airport, and get a cab back. This was fortunate as we hadn't realised that our printout had to be exchanged for the actual tickets at a distant office.
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On the boat to Naples
During our wait we had an interesting time watching tanker after tanker in addition to the usual containers and agricultural products being loaded onto the ship. It was only after I was able to get assess to Wikipedia that I discovered that Sicily is an oil producer and energy exporter to the rest of Italy.
These exports served to reinforce my impression that Sicily is now a cell of prosperity in otherwise depressed Southern Europe, hiding itself under a bushel.