Day One Hundred Eleven - April 26

Today we arrived in the city of Messina located on the Northeast corner of the island of Sicily and is separated from the mainland by the Straight of Messina.

It's population is roughly 250,000 and is the third largest city in the region behind Palermo and Catania. The island itself has 5 million inhabitants.

As you enter the port your ship is blessed by the statue of the Madonnina del Porto as she holds up her right hand.

As we docked and prepared for the day's tour, the MSC Seaview enters the port to dock behind us. With a maximum guest capacity of 5,179 it woud easily have over 7,000 people when you include the crew. A massive vessel which we would not want to sail on.

Our ship tour was to explore the town of Taormina 52 Kilometers away. Traveling along the east side of Sicily, the Adriatic Sea separates the island from Calabria. The journey is roughly 50 minutes passing through two toll bridges (ponte a pedaggio) and by my count thirty tunnels that range from 70 to over 2000 meters in length. It must have been a feat to dig through the mountain side to build the motorway (autostrada).

Arriving in Taormina at the car park we acsended seven floors to reach the top and the city of Taormina. From here you have an excellent view of Mount Etna. It remains as an active volcanoe and is constantly monitored.

We had two hours to explore the city with its medieval architecture and quaint shops. Many of the shops were not open when we arrived but opened while we were there.

The Greek Roman theater was one stop not to be missed however our time was limited so we thought we could not do it justice if we were only there for a short while. Should we return it will certainly be on the list.

By chance we came across 'The Odeon' which is a small theater. It was built by the Romans when the city became a military base in 21 BC.

A stop in Italy is not complete unless you stop for a cannoli which we did. These are tube shape shells of fried pastry dough. The filling can be chocolate or vanilla based with ricotta cheese. The cannoli we found was at a small restaurant and was delicious. Janice's comment was that she never tasted anything so good that wasn't chocolate.

Returning to the bus we made our way back to Messina. There was some time to visit the city with a stop at the Messina Cathedral. As like other Italian cities the shops we closed for siesta. We did see one interesting vehicle for a tour company with the name of an Italian friend we know. Maybe they are relations.

All aboard 17:30 and departure 18:00. Our next port of call was Salerno 200 nautical miles away.