20220503 Taormina and Greek Theatre: We are winding down our cruise. Given all the excursions we have been on and enjoyed, glad that the last three days (yesterday, today, tomorrow) are just half-day in the AM.
Got up in time to see us coming into port in Messina. Leisurely in-room breakfast and down to check in at 8:00. Around 8:15 our bus left the port and we returned around 1:30. Drove south for about an hour to Taormina, our destination for this excursion. Walked uphill from where the bus was parked and onto Corso Umberto, the main street of the city. In 2015, I had been at the opposite end of the street from the perspective of coming from our hotel. Went to Piazza IX Aprile, a big, open square with views over the sea and down to Naxos.
Then we continued on Corso Umberto to near its end and turned to go to the entrance of the Greek Theatre. This is a huge theatre with views over the bay from its top and of Taormina. Also, if the clouds don’t cover Mt. Etna (which they were today), you can see the volcano. The theatre is a wonder and we spent as much time as we had walking up and down and around taking images.
We needed to meet the guide at noon, so we headed back down and onto Corso Umberto where I bought some chocolate from Modica, a city in Sicily where I had been in 2019 at “the source” of the chocolate from there. It’s really good. From there, we walked to get great gelato (pistachio/almond and cassata Siciliana). And back to the bus and back to the ship for lunch at La Veranda on Deck 11. Our walk from the bus to the gangplank for our ship was LONG and by some huge cruise ships. Just what we needed after walking three miles on the excursion to Taormina.
In our suite were disembarking instructions. We have to have our luggage tagged and outside our suite by 11PM. So, we will get into our robes, stuff our last belongings into our luggage and stick it outside. In the morning of the 5th, we will grab a bite at one of the restaurants that are open on the ship and leave the ship at 8:00. Oh, and tonight, we will send out all of our laundry so we have as many clean clothes as we need until we, hopefully, fly home.
This afternoon I got telephone service on my iPhone and took care of two vendor issues that had been hanging since the beginning of the trip. One had to do with a conflict between the cc they were charging to and what their website showed as the correct cc. The other was just forgetting the service call they had scheduled. Ah, first-world problems.
Pulling out of the port of Messina, it was golden hour and we got nice images of Sicily as well as the Italian mainland which is pretty close.
Went to Chartreuse, one of the specialty restaurants onboard. This was our second meal there, the first on 4/25 our first night. Our waitress, Fely, not only remembered our names but also what we had eaten last week! Fun. Then back to the suite and put out our laundry to have it back tomorrow for packing. Did a Facetime with Anna to wish her an early happy birthday.
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