Back to Italy

We made it around the boot and landed on the island of Sicily in the town of Messina.   The straight is quite narrow, so we were close to the mainland too.

Messina was the other port where we decided to do an excursion.  I'm not sure what there is to do in Messina, but we wanted a chance to see Mt Etna and the town of Taormina was appealing.  I was happy to find a tour that included a vineyard lunch.

We took a scenic bus ride and learned about Sicily from our guide.  The views were beautiful as usual.   We parked in a ramp in the town of Taormina which had a great viewing area on the top.

We walked through town towards a Greek amphitheater ruin, for which we had tickets.  It was a cute street with a lot of shopping that we wanted to get back to.  On the way a nice looking church.

The ruin was impressive.  It was very hot and sunny, we looked around quickly and then headed off on our town for a while.

Back on the street, a cool sculpture.

We did some souvineer shopping and had a little gelato to get us through until lunch would be served.

Another view from the parking area.  This is the best view of Mt. Etna in the distance.  Apparently it erupted the day after we were there!

Then we drove to a vineyard, Barone di Villagrande.  The setting was amazing.   We had appetizers outside and lunch inside. I didn't pay much attention to the little tour because the employee was difficult to hear, so I just enjoyed being there.

Back on the ship we enjoyed yet another beautiful sunset while pulling away.  We went to the upper level viewing decks.  

In the theater we saw the big show of the week - Elements.  It included pretty much all of the entertainment staff plus guest aerialists.   It definitely had a Cirque du Soleil vibe and I enjoyed it.   At the end they covered the auditorium in white falling "snow", which explains why they had to leave extra time between performances this night.  I was pretty impressed with what they could accomplish in a floating auditorium.