We spent a fair bit of time snorkelling, swimming, eating, and drinking. To sustain all the eating and drinking, we had to venture out on the roads some more to get supplies. As across the whole of Sicily, it was saddening to see the piles of rubbish everywhere, something to do, I believe, with the rubbish collection being "contracted out" to the local "rulers". But between all the litter, on the side of terrible roads under permanent roadworks, grows rosemary, fennel, and capers.
One evening, we did a lovely boat trip, and saw Mount Etna at sunset, and snorkelled off the side of the boat. The next day, with Matthew better, Debbie and I took him to the other side of Etna for another tour and some more welcome cool air. The other side was surprisingly different, and it was definitely worth doing both.
The dreadful roads had given the hire car quite a ride (many times, just driving along set off the parking sensors), but apart from a dint in one door (not caused by us), it thankfully survived. The man that checked it over didn't bat an eyelid at this, presumably used to seeing much worse. The return trip via Amsterdam was much less eventful than the trip out, but we had the usual problem of being the last flight out, and almost everything at Schiphol closing hours before the flight is due to leave. The £15 chicken leg (no accompaniments) was particularly painful as I ordered one for Megan as well. The beer, at €8 a glass seemed reasonable in comparison.
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