Slopes of Mt Etna

We are staying in a B&b that seems to be in a converted winery. There is a huge old wooden press for the grapes, and a cellar underneath. You can see where the wine used to pour down to barrels below. We are having dinner here very soon, at about 8.30pm, which is normal here. Funnily enough, I am not asleep in my soup, it seems relaxed and leisurely.

The owner is a chef, very shy I think, and all guests dine at one table. Hope the others speak English!

Today was about 40 degrees, very hot to be wandering around Greek ruins of a city from the 5th century bc. This city is very complete, very planned around a large Agora (piazza), and only a fraction 

dug up. We talked with a bunch of US university students who are on a dig- digging up the communal baths. Obviously most of the funding is coming from the US.

We also talked to a local man, a wiry older gentleman, who seemed very passionate about the whole site, knows the site backwards, but we surmised has alienated himself from all other interested parties. He rides his bike in the heat up steep roads everyday to give visitors his version of what is there. The American students were working very hard in the blazing sun, without hats or protection. 

Anyway, it was very interesting to see a genuine layout of such a city, unreconstructed. 

So here we are staying on the lower slopes of Mt Etna, an active volcano, which has been erupting during the last week. There is smoke billowing out of the top, and apparently lava slowly pouring down into a valley to the South. It obviously happens often, and no one takes much notice. It is quite smoggy, as you can see in the photos of the Greek ruins. They are about 100 km from mt Etna.