Catania

Catania turned out to eb a fun little city. After an hours-long struggle with a crooked car-rental worker, who tried to first, rent me the same car I had reserved at double the price, then told me that, although I had requested an automatic, there were -- and nor had there ever been -- any automatic cars in stock, I made it to my hotel.

The Hotel Savona is located across from the Piazza Duomo, which makes it ideal for partying. It was a Friday night and Catania is a college town. I walked around and ended up at a street party where people were openly smoking joints outside of bars -- is that legal? -- in an alley two blocks from my hotel.

It was a fantastic time, the beer was good and cheap, and the people seemed nice. But towards the end of the evening, everyone started eyeing each other up and I decided to go back to my hotel before getting stabbed. Ah, Italia!