Part 5: Day at Sea, and Sicilia!

Our day at sea was lovely. As I said in the last entry, we did indeed sleep in until about 11am. Momma and Poppa D got up for breakfast and I hung out in our room organizing pictures (which we still haven’t been able to upload – sorry!). They went to work out after that and I went topside to enjoy the beautiful Mediterranean sun and read. Then at 3:30 we all enjoyed a wonderful wine tasting – definitely look for pictures from that, it was hilarious, and delicious. Afterwards, I went to do my workout, and after a short nap it was time for dinner! It was one of our dinner-mate’s birthdays, so we got to sing to him and had a wonderful time. After dinner we went up to the lounge bar for Rat Pack hour, followed by ladies night and a very disturbing performance by what they called “Hunk-a-Mania.” I really have no words to describe this, except that they were hardly hunks if you catch my drift. Ladies, you missed nothing, and in fact I definitely could have gone without seeing it. Comical though, nonetheless.
So then today, we docked in beautiful Messina, Sicily and were ready to board our coach for Taormina at 8:30am. Taormina is a little city of about 11,000 people about 30 minutes south of the city we’re docked in and is absolutely beautiful. Apparently, scenes from the Godfather when Michael is banished to Sicily were filmed in the countryside right outside of Taormina. This is because the real town of Corleone would not allow the film-makers to film in the actual city, since there really was/is Mafioso there. We even got to see the church were Michael marries Appollonia! Fascinating. Anyways, so the city of Taormina is situated on the side of a big hill/mountain right near Mt. Etna, overlooking the sea. The road to get there is so twisty and winding, going out onto cliffs and going into mountain tunnels. Scary! But our bus driver, Giuseppe, was excellent. Gorgeous views everywhere you look. We wandered through the streets with our guide, Marina, and saw all the different parts of the town: the Arabian side, the Greek side, and the Byzantine side. Taormina was conquered by all of these at some point in time and so there are different parts of the city which reflect each of the different cultures. While the Greeks were in Taormina, they built a beautiful Greek Theater which overlooks the sea, the mountainside, and Mt. Etna. The Romans came in and of course changed some things, so now it is a Roman Theater. The awesome part is that the acoustics are so good, they still use it for concerts today!
So now we are back onto the ship, and will set off this evening for Venice! Tomorrow we have another day at sea, and then we reach Venice early Saturday morning and will be there for two days. So excited!
I hope you are all enjoying yourselves, where ever you are. Big hugs from the Legend of the Seas :)