Piazza Duomo

The end of a tour, the beginning of another. My first task of the day is to move hotels. Thankfully, they changed our starting hotel. The new one is a much better place. I think if we had to stay in the last one, one more night, I definitely would've booked my own place and just come back for the welcome meeting and dinner.

There was a break in the clouds this morning, the sun actually shining. I was hoping that maybe we could still do Etna, but alas, the red alert was still on. In the end, I found a beach nearby and went to watch some waves. After that, just meandering and watching Netflix at the hotel. I did step out once more to get bubble tea, but got thorough caught in the rain. Things are still drying in the room, including my shoes. I may have to blow dry them in the morning.

Our group on this final tour was is smaller and some members are still missing. Not sure if they got delayed somewhere or if there were late cancellations, like one of the girls from our previous leg. The rain mostly stayed away tonight as we strolled back to the center for dinner. Our tour leader is actually from this city, so it was interesting walking with him as he also showed us places only a local would know, like the underground cavern in our restaurant.

Through the cavern ran the underground river flowing through the city, and the walls were made of the lava from Etna's eruption in the 1600s. Very very cool, and definitely something we would've never found in a guidebook. A quick gelato, then more walking around before heading back for a rest at the hotel. Looks like the weather should be better the coming week, so fingers crossed things run smoothly for one last hurrah before back to work.Read more