Friday, July 07, 2006
A day in the streets of Catania
On the final day of our ICR class (Culture Class), we took a class trip to Catania, which is the second largest city in Sicily. (Palermo, the capital is #1.) We spent all day walking through the busy streets. They have open markets in some streets, and regular shopping stores on others. The open market was just amazing. There are so many people and so much stuff to look at and buy. We also stopped in a little wine shop, tasted a sweet dessert wine, and Tony and I bought some. It is very good, the first wine I've ever really liked. At the end of the trip we ate Italian cuisine at a nearby restaraunt. My favorite part of the meal was pistaccio pasta. It was so good. I also reluctantly tried octopus. Tony made me. I told him I wouldn't try it unless he cut off all the purple sucky things. LOL.. I didn't like it... but I tried it. My mom will be proud. :D Anyway, here are a few pics. The fresh market pics are a little graphic if you don't like seeing fresh meat, don't look at them....
The Elephant is the symbol of Catania (wiki site). The reason for the elephant is long ago, people wondered why Sicily didn't have any dangerous animals like their neighbor counrty Africa. They did have elephants, so it was decided and told that the elephants scared all the dangerous animals away.
The Church:
Another Castle. We didn't get the chance to go inside though.
We stopped for breakfast at a Cafe. It was very yummy, and trying to figure out what everything was, and to order was fun... lol
Shopping in the markets... Fresh fish is everywhere!
And even other types of fresh meat. I asked our ICR instructor if the meat went bad being out in the heat. He answered that the demand is so high that the meat is bought up quickly and usually doesn't go bad, but to be sure if we were ever to buy any to make sure it was shiny. I thought I would be disturbed at the fresh meat, but it was just amazing how the market worked here that it didn't even bother me.
Fresh Fruit. I definately enjoyed the aromas around this section a lot more! And we got to try a few fruits too, they were so sweet!
Views of a few of the streets:
¶ 6:45 PM 
The Elephant is the symbol of Catania (wiki site). The reason for the elephant is long ago, people wondered why Sicily didn't have any dangerous animals like their neighbor counrty Africa. They did have elephants, so it was decided and told that the elephants scared all the dangerous animals away.
The Church:
Another Castle. We didn't get the chance to go inside though.
We stopped for breakfast at a Cafe. It was very yummy, and trying to figure out what everything was, and to order was fun... lol
Shopping in the markets... Fresh fish is everywhere!
And even other types of fresh meat. I asked our ICR instructor if the meat went bad being out in the heat. He answered that the demand is so high that the meat is bought up quickly and usually doesn't go bad, but to be sure if we were ever to buy any to make sure it was shiny. I thought I would be disturbed at the fresh meat, but it was just amazing how the market worked here that it didn't even bother me.
Fresh Fruit. I definately enjoyed the aromas around this section a lot more! And we got to try a few fruits too, they were so sweet!
Views of a few of the streets:
¶ 6:45 PM
