I apologize for the crazy layout of the last blog entry, from Naples.  Wifi and computers on board ships are notoriously slow and mysteriours, and no matter how many times I corrected the font on the posting page, the final product refused to conform to my expectations.


Before continuing on to Messina, here are a few more photos from Naples:

Naples Harbor from our Veranda

My Favorite Place for Pizza in Naples

Frescoes in Santa Chiara Cloister

Santa Chiara Cloister Garden

The Twin Peaks of Mt Vesuvius Across the Bay from Naples

The Streets of SpaccaNapoli

The Streets of SpaccaNapoli

Messina, Sicily
Thursday, 9 November 2017


It's another bright, beautiful morning as we sail down a small bit of Sicilian coastline and enter the infamous straits of Messina, where Odysseus had to choose between Scylla and Charybdis to get his ship and crew safely through the treacherous waters.  Today, luckily, the sea is smooth as glass and the sailing almost imperceptible.  We enter the harbor at Messina with its very tall monument to the Virgin Mary blessing all who cross the straits.

Northeast Coast of Sicily, Approaching Messina



The Virgin Mary Blesses Travelers

I visited here two years ago at the start of a 22-day Eastern Mediterranean curise on that disaster ship, HAL's Zuiderdam.  Today, the three of us are taking a shore excursion, "Taormina on Your Own," which provides a guided bus ride up the curving highways, with 33 tunnels--I counted--cut through the hills and mountains.  The ride to Taormina provides lovely views of the sea and the small villages built into the green hills.  This is the part of Sicily where Francis Coppola filmed many scenes in the Godfather trilogy, bcause the actual town of Corleone in the center of the islsand was under too much Mafia domination to make filming safe.


The bus drops us at the lowest level of the parking deck and we take the elevator to level seven, which provides entry into the pedestrians-only precinct of this wonderful town, with magnificant views of Mt Etna (its peak hidden by clouds today).  There are some lovely old churches and squares, and the highlight of the town, the Greco-Roman open-air theatre, is still used for plays and concerts in the summer.  But Taormina is primarily a resort town and its one main street is lined with souvenir shops, expensive boutiques, bars, cafes and restaurants.

Various Views of Taormina



We have three hours to wander the town on our own before the bus whisks us back to Messina in about an hour, still in time to have lunch on board the Marina.


Afternoon in Messina


The main sights of Messina are conveniently gathered in the central square.  The cathedral itself is a reconstructed version of an earlier baroque building that was completely destroyed (as was most everything else in Messina) in an early 20th-century earthquake.  Next to the cathedral is a bell tower with the largest astronomicsal clock in Europe,  It puts on a magnificent show of moving bronze figures everyday at noon--which we miss because we are in Taormina,  But the figures themselves are quite magnificent even standing still.  The fountain in the square is the only monument that was not destroyed by the earthquake, and just a few blocks away is the closed church of St Carmine with its authentic moorish exterior. Besides being victimized by that earthquake, Messina was also carpet-bombed by the allies during World War II.


I will post Messina photos in the next blog entry.


In another few minutes we are back on board and ready for the evening's festivities, which include the Captain's reception, with free drinks for all.  We meet Anita for dinner in the Polo Grill, a very traditional steak and seafood restaurant and dine on shrimp cocktails, baked oysters, lobster bisque, whole lobster (carved up by the server), filet mignon, and rack of lamb--among the three of us.