Our day started as most mornings did on our trip, waking up early to beat the rush to get breakfast at the buffet. There were so many different options available that I think I had something different every morning. We also enjoyed sitting by a window to have a great view of the ship pulling into the port.
After finishing our breakfast and gathering what we needed for the day from our room, we headed to meet our tour group for the day. Upon exiting the ship, they had Sicilian dancers, musicians, and other entertainers there to greet us. It was a fantastic welcome to the island and my first taste of Italy.
One thing I noticed while we were planning this trip that I hadn’t been too excited about was that it seemed that many of the popular sites were a good distance away from the port, requiring 1+ hour long bus rides to get to the stops. However, this turned out to be just as exciting as the stops themselves as we were able to see everyday, traditional cities as we drove by as well as listen to the wealth of knowledge that our tour guides provided us along the way.
Our first stop for the day was Mt. Etna, an active volcano, which happens to be the tallest active volcano in Europe. We were told that the volcano is always smoking, as we were able to see, but that it had been active a week or two before we were there.
We didn’t have the opportunity to go all the way to the top which is about 10,000 feet, but we were able to get very close at about 6,500 feet. It was a long, steep journey to that point with very windy and narrow streets, I had to give major kudos to our bus driver for making that drive look easy. We were able to see where lava had flowed down the sides of the mountains along the way up, becoming more and more prominent the higher up we went.
When we got off the bus, our tour guide offered to walk the group over to one side of the area for good views of a crater, the valley below, as well as the peak of the volcano. My mom decided to stay with him, however my dad and I decided to be a little more adventurous and climb a little higher up. The hill was very long and steep, but the views it afforded at the top were completely worth it. There weren’t too many people up there and it felt like we were alone at the top of the world. After spending a good few minutes up there, we made the equally difficult trek back down.
We met back up with our group and boarded the bus to our next stop. A nice little local restaurant for lunch that was tucked away on the mountainside. It had been reserved exclusively for the few tour groups from our ship which was very nice. Our bus was the last of the 4 groups to arrive and the other groups had already been seated and started being served food. We sat at a table that had a couple large plates with a variety of meats, cheeses, and breads, along with wine and water. My parents and I were thinking that this is what our lunch was going to be and started making several small sandwiches. Much to our surprise, next came a pasta dish, followed by a chicken dish, one or two other smaller plates and then a dessert tray. So. Much. Food. I’m pretty sure we got our money’s worth for the whole excursion just for this food. And the best part, it was all absolutely delicious. There is nothing like authentic Italian food. And the wine was also very good!
Very full from the amazing lunch, back on the bus we went. Our last stop for the day was to an ancient city called Taormina, in the mountains right along the shoreline of the island. There are many beaches and other spots throughout the town, but we got to explore the main square. This is a popular tourist destination with lots and lots of shops along a narrow street that has an ancient theater at one end. We had about an hour to explore the ancient churches and other buildings that lined this main street and it was all beautiful.
My dad and I decided to continue our culinary journey as well and had some classic, traditional, Sicilian pizza. Mmmm it was delicious! We hopped back on the bus for our ride back to the ship.
After dinner in the dining room, we headed up to the pool deck. Every night, the ship would play movies on a big screen by the pools. One of the big differences between this cruise, in May/June through the Mediterranean, and my previous cruises in the summer through the Caribbean, was the weather. This was especially noticeable at night, I found it a little comical that everyone was bundled up in jackets and blankets watching the movie at night while on a cruise. Not something I was used to.
We went back to our room for the night to get ready for our next day in Naples!
It's a Magical Life 