Day Three/Thursday: Catania, Sicily

Bob stands under huge cactus at Garden Hotel in Catania, Sicily

Met some more very interesting people today!

We slept soundly in our room at the Sigonella NAS terminal, until we were awakened in the morning by the sound of PA announcements of arriving and departing flights, and by the sound of troops moving through the terminal!

And in the morning at breakfast, at a Chock Full O' Nuts restaurant on base, a Canadian Air Force pilot came over to talk to us, because we were wearing Montreal shirts and hats from our recent trip there.  He was a P-3 pilot.  P-3s are a type of radar/spy plane.  (Note to retired Navy P-3 crewman and friend Ron Williams of Arkansas:  Feel free to elaborate in a comment!)  He was here with a group of dozens of Canadian military from Nova Scotia -- they are part of the reason the local hotels are full!  He said they will be here until January, he thinks.  They are part of NATO forces.  We think they may also be busy with the Libya campaign. 

Bob enjoyed talking to him about two U.S. Navy ships that once crashed along the shores of a very isolated area of Newfoundland, where he was from.  The local citizens helped save the crew, hauling them up cliffs to the safety of their homes, since there was no hospital nearby.  They scrubbed the oil off the crewmen.  Including one African-American.  The local woman kept scrubbing him, until he asked her to stop, saying that was his skin's color!  She had never seen an African-American person before!  A book was written about this shipwreck, "Standing Into Danger."

We walked to the PX on base, got Euros out of an ATM and bought a tour book for Italy.

We tried to rent a car this morning, but the rental place on base was all out of cars -- again, perhaps, because of all the visiting troops, and also because the tourist season is in full swing.

So we reserved a room at the Garden Hotel, in Catania, which was supposed to send a shuttle bus to pick us up -- not until 5:30 p.m..  It did not show, outside the base gate, but a local Navy officer picked us up and drove us all the way to our hotel -- about 40 miles!  The second very interesting person we met!

He was with a unit on base.  He had been stationed with Boeing(?) in St. Louis, MO (my home state) previously.  He was from Ohio.  He had also served in Afghanistan.  He was single, and a lieutenant commander in the Navy.  He would not accept any money for the free ride, so we offered him a free stay at our condo in Florida sometime!

The next day, we got a nice e-mail from him, asking if we had gotten settled into our hotel okay, and telling us if we needed a ride back to the base, or needed any help, just call his cell phone.  We thanked him for checking on us, told him he was way too nice, and told him we have a nice, single daughter that we would be happy to fix him up with sometime!

The Hotel Garden (about 60 Euros/$85/night) was beautiful!  It has plush landscaping, with lots of cactus plants and palm trees, a big and beautiful saltwater pool, gorgeous rooms, and a 6-foot bathtub in our room.  We took a swim, then walked down the street to find a restaurant. 

Found a little hole-in-the-wall pizza place.  Out front, a guy who looked like he might be American was sitting at a table.  Bob asked, "Speak English?" and the guy smiled, and said, "Well yeh, a little!"  in a NY City accent.  He was from the Bronx, and is a captain in the FDNY.  He is a former F-14 pilot, now in the Reserves, and in Italy doing training.  He was among the 9-11 responders.  Our third interesting person of the day!  He recommended the pizza there, and we tried it and it was great!  We actually returned to this place for the next 2 nights -- we were just so tired, we didn't have the energy to look elsewhere!

Read all about Mount Etna, and some more interesting people we met, in the next blog!