So many stairs...

On Thursday morning, we woke up to more sunshine and went ahead with our plan to drive to Caltagirone, which is about an hour's drive from Sigonella. Caltagirone is famous for its pottery; the city's name is Arabic for "Hill of Vases." We spent the morning going in and out of ceramic shops and wandered up and down streets with little idea of where we were. No worries. We turned a corner and found ourselves at the foot of La Scala de Santa Maria del Monte. Mom and I climbed up about 1/3 of the way and then waited while Sienna bounded up the rest of the 142 steps, posed for a picture and then bounded back down (with Mom and I both telling her to S-L-O-W D-O-W-N the whole time.) We took a mid-morning break at a neat little trattoria where Mom and I sipped cappuccino while Sienna ate an entire salami and provolone sandwich from a nearby salumeria. After a few more ceramic shops and some more wandering, we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant where we shared a Sicilian antipasto, a Caprese salad, and some cassata.

Sienna has fallen in love with salami here in Italy!

Picking an orange right on the street!

Mom and Sienna on the stairs

Hard to tell, but Sienna is at the top of the stairs!

Mom accidentally went into the men's room. "Uomini" does sound like "women," don't you think?