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OK it is our last night in Sicily - well now that we are in Mafia country it has lived up to expectations (very low).
We eventually found the hotel we had booked based on recommendations on Tripadvisor and unfortunately we tried to check in during siesta time so they were not too happy with us. We got to our room, which is adequate if you do not need to use the toilet (which does not flush) - lucky i have some experience with that and encouraged it to work. We have just had the "TV man" to fix the TV - he says it does English??? PS he does toilets too so he has just fixed the toilet as well - hooray, except now you have to lift the whole cistern lid to get a flush!
We decided to return the hire car this afternoon as we have a 5.30am start tomorrow flying into Crete via Rome and Athens and really don't want to get lost in Catania!! They wanted to charge us an extra day as we were 2 hours late - we told them how lost we got, etc. etc. eventually we convinced him not to overcharge us for an extra day as we did a mental calc and worked out that it would be better to leave the car and take a taxi back to hotel and again back to airport in the morning (so we don't get lost again - very easy to do believe me) - he agrees after a lot of encouragement.
So we go to the taxi rank and we are told that it is Euro20 "fixed price" to go 5 mins around the corner?? We go into the terminal to information to find if there is a bus - of course not - we have to go in the bus into Catania town and change buses to come back to where we are???
So we go back to the taxi rank (same guy who knew we would come back as there are no other options) and we pay Euro 20 to go less than 5 mins drive around a maze of streets and we get him to drop us off at a bar on the beach (relatively) near our hotel.
We go into the bar and ask if we can have a drink. Nice older fellow says he is not open - we encourage him to let us sit outside for a glass of red. He tells us summer is over and he has the outdoor furniture packed away. So we go outside and sit at red plastic chairs and table and get 2 enormous glasses of local Etna red (which is actually not bad) and ask what there is to eat. He sets up the table with a nice clean tablecloth and serviettes. He can do bruschetta and salad. Erika has bruchetta and I have Insalata Caprese - both of which turn out to be very acceptable and we share another enormous glass of Etna special. I am sure by now we have consumed at least a bottle.
We decide we had better go before dark so we head off down the road to our hotel. Quite incredible that we walk along the beachside road which is like an abandoned car yard - not sure what went wrong here but we are very pleased we are out of here early tomorrow.
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