I'm sorry to leave Taormina today. It is a lovely town with lots of little villages to explore on neighbouring hills/mountains. If you can stand the black sand, the beaches below Taormina and along the coast would be a very pleasant and relaxing way to spend a warm day. Taormina is a town I would happily come back to for another stay.

I have given up eating breakfast as I can't come at cakes first thing in the morning .

Looking at Mount Etna this morning from the hotel, I realised that much of the haze I have been seeing hanging around the top of the mountain is smoke coming from the main crater on the northern slop. It is the northern slop that is seen from the hotel.

I asked Gilberto for the name of the biscuits Jill and I took such a liking to yesterday - the aim being to download the recipe from the internet. Gilberto and Marco (bus driver) only knew them as 'biscotti' (biscuits), so Gilberto rang the restaurant. They are called "Lingue o Foglie da Te", which translates to, Tongue of the Tea Leaf. Try finding that on the internet! By typing in the Italian name (the translation got me nowhere) and then clicking on the 'translate this page' I actually managed to get the recipe. Now Meg can make them for me.

Our first stop on the way to Agrigento was at the UNESCO heritage listed Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armenian . Built by a powerful landowner in the mid-fourth century AD, the Villa's floors are decorated with the best and most extensive mosaics I have ever seen "the most extensive display of mosaics in the Roman world". The Villa is huge - 46 rooms. It was a mud slide in the 12th century that covered the Villa, preserving the quality of the mosaics. UNESCO listed the Villa because it is a "supreme example of a luxury Roman villa. The mosaics that decorate it are exceptional for their artistic quality and invention as well as their extent".

Our final stop was at the town of Enna, perched high on a hilltop. Enna's claim to fame is that it is situated dead centre in Sicily. The views from the town were breathtaking. However, there was a general consensus amongst the group that Enna was a waste of time.

The hotel in Agrigento, Colleverde Park Hotel is a lovely hotel with extensive gardens and a view of the Valley of the Temples. This is a family run hotel and we were greeted upon arrival by the owner - a very nice touch. The rooms are big but you couldn't swing a cat in the bathroom. However, the bathroom does give plenty of scope to string a clothes line. We are only staying two nights in order to visit the Valley of the Temples tomorrow. This is probably just as well because, although it is a lovely hotel, it's not in an area that is accessible to anything. Nothing is in walking distance - no cafés, shops etc.