Day 6 Messina in Sicily.
1pm – 8pm
This is one of the most beautiful arrivals of this year. We arrived in Messina around 1pm in the afternoon, which was really nice, because many cruises arrive early in the morning so that the excursions can get away, but as this was a repositioning cruise, things were a little different.
During the morning we cruised right passed Mount Etna the active volcano and although it was a glorious sunny day for us you can see that the top of the volcano has snow around it, even though you can also see the steam rising from the volcano’s crater.
Now, I must explain one thing, I am not stingy by any means, but when we dock on a cruise ship and we find out the shops are to the left, I like to steer my wife to the right! This amuses most people we tell as they assume my wife likes to shop and spend money, we that’s just not true, because mostly we manage to avoid the shops (lol). However on this occasion, the gods were on my side as Messina’s shops closed for some type of Siesta from 1pm until 4pm – so we had to visit the clock tower and church instead.
We were going to book an excursion to the “Villages of the Godfathers” but we left it a little late and the trip got sold out – Maybee next time.
The Clock tower and church in the town square were really impressive. We were told that at 1pm each day, the clock tower comes to life and all manner of animated gold statues come to life, unfortunately we missed that.
Inside the church was really impressive, Amanda and I wandered about and At one point I lost her completely, it turns out she had wandered into a restricted area and found herself behind the main alter (no doubt looking for a shop that was open).
One thing that amused me about this church was instead of real candles for you to light, it was all mechanical with false candles with bulbs, when you inserted a euro into the slot a candle came on. Now I didn’t wait to see how long it stayed on for, but whilst I was there I did not see any go out.
Then it was back onto the ship, a spot of late lunch, a a nap and then back to the bar for another games show, “Name that Tune”, our team came second, and I ended up having to get onto the stage.
Then after several more hours of a free bar, it was time to dance. Among my dacing partners tonight was the very lovely Joan.
Tomorrow we arrive in Naples at 8am
