Day 16 - Messina Sicily

The day dawned dreary & gray… but warm enough so we ventured out. We saw the street vendors and purchased a Messina scarf, then walked around (Sicilian “Dodge Car” is the easiest we’ve seen yet) and found the Cathedral which was absolutely beautiful. The mosaic ceilings were exquisite and seemingly more “organized” than the ones in Rome & Venice… however, we noticed the front of the church seemed “busy” with somber activity. Unable to see what was going on, like typical tourists we moseyed up close, only too late to realize that we were intruding upon a funeral… and not just any funeral, but the funeral of a child. Complete with white balloons and a large Winnie-the-Pooh balloon… oh boy, did we feel awful. We took the kids to the back of the church and took a seat taking the rest of the church in from where we sat.

11 o’clock was approaching so we journeyed out of the Duomo and found “The Clock” which played music and has dancing animals out front… then took a few pictures in front of the fountain nearby and by then we were about ready to hunt down a souvenir or two to prove we’d been there… and go back to the ship. There’s definitely more to see in Sicily, but Messina apparently isn’t really “it”. Even the cruise director commented in his “Prepare for Sicily” talk that if you don’t plan to go on one of the excursions and instead just walk around town on your own… you’ll be back on the ship in a couple of hours… he was right.

We opted for the “Pasta Bar” for lunch (I think it’s the only dining option we hadn’t tried other than room service) and each placed our order for the Pasta Chef. Lunch over with and we then meandered around with the kids asking to go to the library (do I have them well trained or what? LOL!) They then wanted to go to “Camp Carnival” and so I dropped them off and decided to take a nap. It’s truly amazing how exhausting a cruise can be. MIL offered to pick up the kids at 5 and we watched as we sailed out of Sicily.

After dinner we were supposed to sail north around a couple of volcanoes that have been known to offer “a show”, but sadly the weather report has turned less than favorable so we’re now headed south away from the volcanoes (and the storms). Still, our route promises not to be as easy –going to Barcelona as we’ve had up to now. Thankfully, none of us are prone to sea-sickness… so it should be ‘fine’, but only time will tell.

Another interesting note - The Dream (our ship) is one of the ten largest cruise ships in the world and is the newest. We know this because they keep telling us :-)

Turns out the ship tied up behind us is a few thousand tons larger... and is only about four weeks older. Oh well. I guess we still feel special.