Life on the Vine

As I was working on my post about our trip to Tuscany, I was looking through our photos and saw several pictures we'd taken of cats we'd seen in some of the hill towns.  Seeing those pictures reminded me of the cats we'd seen in Sicily and Malta.  While I can't say I've ever seen cats roaming the streets in Germany (dogs rule here), we do see them often in Italy and countries in the Mediterranean.  This is a totally random post but I thought I might share pictures of our international kitties. Chillin' in Malta Mooching up to Tom in Mt. Etna, Sicily - hoping for a handout Cruising the streets in Sarteano Street Urchin in Taormina, Sicily Waiting for someone to let them inside in Sarteano The house cat at our agriturismi ( Il Sasso ) in Tuscany Catching some rays in Montepulciano Kitty in Sarteano -- looks like he had a long night I think this is Medina, Malta Two of my favorite kitties - found these guys in Taormina, Sicil...

Just ninety minutes away from Malta via a very sleek and speedy catamaran is Sicily.  When Tom and I were talking about plans for my birthday weekend in Malta I told him I wanted to try something new and take the day trip to Sicily.  It certainly makes for a long day.  We were up at 4:30 a.m. and outside our hotel waiting for our pick-up by 5:15 a.m.  We were on board the catamaran and underway by 7 a.m. and the day did not end until around midnight.  It was worth every minute. As we were leaving Malta we got some pictures of the sunrise.  Here are a couple.  Sunrise marks a new day and new year Fortified walls Tom splurged a bit on the tickets so we could sit in Club Class.  This actually worked out to our benefit twice.  Because of the deck locations the Club Class section was the only part of the boat where you could be outside while the catamaran was underway.  This allowed us to get these photos.  Sicily here we com...