We docked in Messina, Sicily this morning along with 2 other ships; the Holland America Rotterdam and the Seabourn Pride... all 3 owned by, you know who... Carnival Corporation! After breakfast in the Lido Restaurant, we assembled in the Royal Court Theatre for our tour. Messina is sicily's 3rd largest city, about 250,000 in the city, itself. We wound thru city traffic to the motorway and then headed south toward Taormina. Taormina is a small city of about 10,0000 people high in the mountains. It has amazing views of the sea and of Mt. Etna, a 10,000 ft high active volcano. Our guided tour meandered up the Main Street of this quaint town past several town squares and up to the Greek-Roman Theater with even more spectacular views. The guide then left us on our own for 90 minutes, which allowed us to do some exploring on our own. We stopped in a couple of shops and a couple of churches (of course!) Many of the shops are high end... and their are 9 Five Star hotels in this town... We went inside one of them and out onto its terrace with one amazing view. i shudder to think what it costs to stay there!
This is not a town I would like to drive to on my own... I will leaving the driving to the buses and taxis, very narrow, winding roads. I am prone to vertigo, which would affect me if I was behind the wheel. The vertigo affected me in a couple of places up in the theater, too. But, I survived.
We arrived back at the ship around 2:00 pm and headed for the Lido Restaurant for the luncheon buffet. Then it was time to do laundry. Each deck has 3 free laundry machines, first come first serve. We lucked out and only had to go down one deck to find 2 available machines.
I did not pack correctly for this trip. I should have brought more polo shirts and shorts and fewer long sleeve shirts. Live and learn, I guess.... but, the weather has been spectacular!
Now for some photos from Messina and Tarmina, Sicily... oh... you can get "Godfather" tee shirts in the souvenir shops.
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