We began our trip to Italy of course with an extremely long flight to Paris. Here's a quick shot a passerby took of us, who could see I was struggling to take one of both of us myself. You can see in Rob's expression that he's a little bit wary of me handing over our very expensive camera to a complete stranger. You may also notice the Grapefruit flavoured Sweppes I'm holding...num! I kept looking for them the rest of our trip but could only find it in the Paris Airport. Dah! I took out the camera because the glass ceiling was so impressive!
Our first night in Italy... We stayed in a delightful bed 'n breakfast owned by a gorgeous Italian couple. Making polite conversation the wife asked me if I swim. I thought she was asking me because they had pool so I responded yes. Then Rob informed me, No, she's asking you if you are a
swimmer because she noticed you have wide shoulders. Ah, the first of many a misunderstanding of the Italian language for me. The next day we took ourselves on a tour of their place...the flora...the fauna, the motorcycle, and castle... Oh so Italian.
The first three days of our trip we hit up many of Rob's mission sites. We began in Catania, Sicily and were hit hard and fast by the Sicilian way of life...literally. Rob got into a small fender bender, what with the rain, narrow streets, people popping out of alleyways. Rob kept saying "This is just like a video game!" You can see in the picture above there is a sign warning you that people will run into the street unexpectedly. It's not like the walking pedestrian sign in America...these people will come at you fast. The lady in the car that Rob put a small dent in the back bumper came at him in true Italian fashion, hand in the air yelling "La macchina e' distrutta!" (The car is destroyed!) Rob assured me it was all part of the Sicilian experience. Rob has been in two car accidents in his life - both of them in Catania.
Next we decided to visit the LDS chapel in Catania where Rob attended for over 8 months of his mission. There happened to be three ladies doing geneology there and when they learned Rob had served him mission there, they insisted we stay for lunch so they could throw a party for him! They went out and bought us some of the tastiest Sicilian food imaginable. We stuffed ourselves silly and still had leftovers on our plate...a Sicilician faux pas but they assured us it was "OK" *grimace, wince*. I wish terribly that I had gotten my camera/video player out of the car and recorded these women talking. They were going a million miles a minutes and all Rob and I could do is smile and nod :)
In Milazzo, another mission town of Rob's, we stay in a lovely 4 star place called Hotel Il Principe. It was quite unique with it's ornate decorations and ornate furniture. The middle picture is Rob standing next to the craziest light fixture I've ever see. I wish it had been turned on so you could get the full effect but it was just a wild bunch of wires with bulbs at the end. That night we ordered in a margharita pizza and Fanta and stared up at a glorified fire alarm in the middle of the cofferred ceiling :)
The next morning we strolled along the port and Rob told me old mission stories and reminisced about the places he'd been. You can see the incredible shot of him in the corner standing next to one of his old apartments.
We hiked up to some castle ruins at the top of the city and here was our view of Milazzo below.
Milazzo is really quite quaint with its docking port, winding cobblestone paths, tiny cars, ma & pa's shops (we bought some prickly pears), laundry drying out the window... ah Italy.
Rob drove us up to Capo Milazzo where we had lunch at a ristorante/pizzeria called Il Faro. After all sorts of guessing at the menu and a pushy Italian waiter who was just sure he knew what we wanted, we ended up with bruschetta, tuna olive & tomatoe salad, shrimp and lobster (head, eyes...the whole thing) spagetti, and of course two Coca colas. These Sicilians are into presentation I tell you... hence Rob's spaghetti in this elaborate swan o' tinfoil. The best part was we had the entire restaurant to ourselves (except for the cat that kept dashing about). I kept teasing Rob that it was so romantic of him to reserve the entire restaurant just for us! After some banter about President Obama with the owner, we left and went for a small stroll along the point. We came upon a church that had been built into a cave in the rock and offered our thanks for a glorious vacation. 
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