But, before we get there, here is what I think is a great shot of Etna I took early this morning.

It also shows the massive highways which we learnt yesterday were built with EU funding. But, Antonio our guide from yesterday told us that sadly Sicily had to, or has to return some unspent money as the time to use it is up. He is cranky the government did not act more wisely and quickly, and essentially wasted opportunities for the island.

As we leave Sicily after two wonderful weeks, I want to note a few reflections.

There are little surprises around almost every corner. For example, I’ve noticed a little bag of rubbish each morning suspended from and upstairs window, on my early morning walks around Taormina, obviously waiting for collection.

Tiny streets abound, but this was the smallest we saw. Apparently there is an excellent restaurant halfway up, and Kath was confident she could manage the steps, but Mick was less confident he wouldn’t get stuck!!

The local people are very friendly and very happy. The younger Sicilians can speak English very well, but young and old patiently indulged my attempts to speak to them in Italian.

The food and wine is cheap. Our first week in Palermo where we had breakfast and dinner at our accommodation made that time very inexpensive. Eating out is always the killer.

We have been pleasantly surprised about how good the Sicilian wine is. We had been worried after our first tastes of Italian wine back in 2009. Perhaps our tastes have changed as all the red wines we tried we enjoyed.

We have felt very safe here. Police presence is evident everywhere. Here in Taormina, police guard the entry into the old town and shut vehicles out from 9am until late because there are so many pedestrians. Antonio told us it has been happening like that since the terrorist truck attacks in France.

I have been intrigued and confused by all the different types of police here, which I also remember from our last visit to Italy.

I found out that there are two local levels / forces and five national ones, but this one below in particular has me very intrigued.

The Guardia di Finanza – which is a national force.

This building is one of the best in Taormina, excluding the flash hotels and restaurants. This also shows the importance of this organisation.

We’ve seen lots of guards, cars and buildings like this over the last two weeks.

It is a militarised police force under the control of the Minister for Defence and Finance. It has 600+ boats and ships and 100+ aircraft, as well as all the police on land, to suppress and manage illegal financial crimes and smuggling, including smuggling of drugs. Mick wondered if it originated from the need to manage the Mafia. 😎

We have been surprised by the small number of Tunisians here, considering how close it is. Of course there are obviously people who originated from elsewhere, but most of the population to us, looked similar – excluding tourists of course. Sicilian people are relatively short and Kath felt quite tall at times.

More obvious were the large number of stall holders, all selling the same things in the three towns where we stayed. Edward had found out that this group of people mostly originate from Bangladesh.

Our trip to Rome and to our airport hotel went to plan. We enjoyed a stroll along the port of Fumicino before a great dinner and off to bed.

Mick was happy with our choice of restaurant as they had many Italian IPAs for him to try. He behaved very well though and only tried two.

And look what we saw on our stroll.

The large building is the Coast Guard and the one on the right is the Guardia di Finanza !