Hotel Dei Pini 4/3/07

The name of our hotel now it Hotel of the Pini (the full translation is hotel of the Pines).
Our Sicilian hotel experience has been an interesting one so far. Our travel agent used another travel agent in Sicily to book our hotels. After the disaster with our Reggio hotel we have at least gotten to the right one on the first try since then. However, apparently Andiamo travel though thought it would be a good idea to put us in all the hotels that every other student group also uses. Furthermore it is clear that they have not sent anyone to look at these hotels since the 1970s when they probably were very nice and in a great area of town. Now they are just insanely tacky and the only thing close by is the Italian version of Wal-Mart called “CenterGross” and the supermarket called “Maxistore”.
Last night in Hotel dei Pini we were sharing a hall with Belgian high schoolers which was fun for those who spoke French on our trip. Tonight however the West Virginians moved in. They told us that tomorrow they are going to see “the ruins”. I don’t think they even know who built “the ruins” and they definitely don’t know that we have spent two and a half months seeing “the ruins” in five different countries. The group leader also told us that her only other travel experience was to the “Great China Wall”.