More dreams

Actually this was not in the local jewelers but in the local museum of friends from a site occupied from 5000 BC called Morgantina. Nearly three thousand years old, the necklace seems to have stood the test of time rather well both in terms of durability and style. 
As indeed had many other of the exhibits. Several had an interesting history having been illegally sold to rich Americans in the 60's but have now slowly working their way back to Sicily.
Before this museum however we visited the tourist honeypot of the Villa Romana de Casale. Reckoned to have the best mosaics in Italy, they were impressive as hopefully you can see in the extra photos. The "bikini girls" are the iconic ones but others showed fascinating insights into Roman life. Busy and hot.
A visit then to the museum and a snack lunch, including a hot chocolate that you could have turned upside down without losing it, before heading off into the sun at Morgantina. Ruins everywhere and almost too much to see, especially in the heat and humidity that we have still to get used to.
Desperate for a drink, back in the car, we had to drive for an hour and a half before finding somewhere that would sell us a bottle of water - in a huge shopping complex just outside Catania.
Stuffed at the car hire return - Italy Car Rent if you are interested - with a scratch noticed on the underside of the bumper - we would have known if we had done it and hadn't, as I expect everyone says, but of course it was not on the original inspection, probably because I didn't crawl around the car on hands and knees.  The gentleman inspecting the car found it pretty quickly. Makes you wonder...
304 euros later we were grumpily on the flight to Marseille and eventually got home just gone 2am, our Sicilian odyssey over.