My Uncle recently purchased an ocean-view condo in the city of Patti, a lovely little Italian town on the northeastern shore of Sicily. So for a couple of days after Agrigento, we visited the small coastal city. Unfortunately there was some delays in the closing for his new place, so we were only able to tour it very briefly. Nonetheless, Patti was a vibrant little town with everything you could hope for: beaches, restaurants, bars and cafes dotting the shore.
The horse has a silly story: I spotted it escaping the heat, munching on some grass...and seemingly not contained at all. I was taking some photos when a man came up, who I can only presume was the owner. He chastised the horse, who then very sheepishly walked back over to their enclosure. The fence had a broken section that it had escaped from. An hour later, as we drove down the mountain...guess who darted out in front of our car? That's right, the same horse! The owner came speeding around us, pulled over and hopped out of his car to chase after them. So this little horse was quite the escape artist, it seems!
One of the things I was aching to try in Italy was the Italian game of "8-15," which is similar to American 8-ball but on a different table and some minor changes to the rules in how shots are made. As you can see from the above photo, the pockets are barely big enough to fit the balls and the bumpers are taller than the balls themselves. Both of these made the game much more challenging. In Patti there was a well regarded billiards club that had these tables, and I visited during the off-hours. Ignoring the "Members Only" sign, I waltzed in and was happy to find that the owner greeted me warmly. I explained (with Google Translate) that I was an American tourist and really wanted to try Italian Billiards. He was kind enough to let me play a game with his son, who spoke a small amount of English, and even gave me a free cup of house espresso. It was a challenging game, but really fun!
