Day 13 Sicily--Catania and Casa di Maria

 

After breakfast we traveled to Catania which is the second largest municipality in Sicily.  The dining room had a panoramic view of the sea.

Once again we had a local tour guide show us around Catania.  Our first stop was the World War II museum.

I'm sorry my battery died so I don't have many photos to show.

When we entered the museum there was a typical village scene with all the destruction from the war.

We then entered a bomb shelter and sat down on a bench with the sirens going off.  Pretty soon you could hear bombs being dropped and the whole shelter was shaking.  I can't imagine what those people went through at that time.

Our guide told us stories of what her family had to endure.

After the war museum we walked over to the fish market.  You don't find many supermarkets in Italy.  Everyone goes to the local markets for fish, vegetables, meat and cheese.

Nunzia had a special treat for us after our walk through the market.  I wish I had a photo of them, but they were little white covered sponge cake with a little cherry on top.  

We then drove to Biancavilla to visit Casa di Maria.  It is one of the foundations that Grand Circle supports.  

Our group had a nice lunch and we got to met the children as they arrived home from school.  All of the children have to be driven to and from school.  They are all different ages and in three different schools.  The youngest is 2 and the oldest is 20.  

This is a foster family and the story of how this came about was interesting.  

The children knew that we were OAT travelers and that some people brought gifts for them.  Bill and I had asked Nunzia before the trip how many, what ages and sex they were so that we could bring a gift for each of them.

They were all well behaved.

Even the dog got in the group photo.

Turtle Safely.........