Day 26. 27 November. Palermo, Sicliy. IT

This had been a night cruise along the coast of Sicily with lights along the shoreline. At sunrise we entered the harbor, turned 90 degrees and backed up alongside a pier, a port side to the inner harbor. This gave us a view of a concrete grain elevator, floating dry-docks, a couple of large ferries, an MSC ship undergoing some maintenance, rowing shells and a small tanker. Oh yes, there is s cliff sided mountain just beyond the maze of apartment building's, topped with radio towers and what looks like a monastery with windows, or a remote hotel.

a ferry at a pier

view of the city

The event of the day for us was began with an hour long bus ride through the city then along the coast. This gave us a view of apartments, dark narrow streets, souvenir shops and later more apartment buildings, trash, junk yards, auto repair shops, landscaping lots and so on. The Sicilian clothes drier, same as the mainland Italian clothes drier, is a railing of an apartment. That at least adds color to drab buildings. In fact this is a technique used throughout the world; exception being the USA. It didn't help that our guide was soft spoken and those in the back of the bus couldn't hear the monologue.

After the dash down the freeway we came to the sea-side town of Cefalu, which seemed to be pronounced “cheff-a-lew.” Accent on the “cheff”. Outa the bussa. A death-defying walk down a narrow sidewalk/street shared with scooters, small trucks and cars. Off one side, for the first few meters, was a cliff and a beautiful view of the rocks below and the sea. With cameras going full speed, sounding like a school of castanet players, the group made it to the central square. Beautiful, it was. A tour of the cathedral was provided, though I cannot relate anything of it. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cefalu_Cathedral We then walked down a narrow street and stopped in to visit the old community laundry which is a subterranean trough with mountain water flowing through it. 

Cefalu

the square

entering Cefalu

Cefalu Cathedral

the square

street scene

At that point we peeled off from the group and headed up another street and pounced upon a fruit and vegetable vendor with a 3 wheel truck. From him we bought a bag of Valencia oranges to take back to the ship for our friends in the crew. Up more streets until we came to the square and there bought pizza and pastries to eat at one of the many tables in the square.

old public laundry

fruit

lunch in the square

Back to the bus and by noon were retracing our ride back to the city.

back in the city

city scene

 Aboard by 1315. This is a walk-off pier and outside the gate are taxis, horse drawn carriages and vendors waiting. What we could see leaving the pier were the usual city pizzerias, souvenir shops, cheap electronics stores, tee shirt shops and the like. Nothing to entice us to return to town. I look forward to hearing others' adventures in hope of finding something in the area of interest for any future stop here.

Noon report: 38º 07.65'N, 013º 22.00'E. Sunrise 0658. Sunset 1649. N-N run (last nights run) 156 nm. Total nautical miles we have covered since leaving Ft. Lauderdale is 6,302.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cefalu

Day 25, 24 Nov. Messina, Sicily (IT)

This is the third largest city in Sicily. It was begun in the 8^th century BC by the Greeks.

We had calm cruising last night. At 0700 we were in the Straits of Messina with the sun coming up over the mainland. A beautiful morning. In the harbor the ship was rotated so our port side was facing town which meant the morning sun was direct and there were no shadows on our side. At 0735 we were secured to the pier.

At 0915 we boarded a bus built for Japanese and headed South along the coast. The buildings are modern and were mostly apartments high rises. We saw no single family homes with yards. Maybe elsewhere, but not on this route. There were lots of tunnels to pass through.

About 40 km from Messina we came to Taŏrmina up on the mountain and on the edge of the old city. got out in a parking lot to walk. The city was entered through the ancient Porta Catania and we walked up the cobblestone street of C. so Umberto I, lined with shops on ground level and apartments above. Narrow alleyways intersected the street and these lead either uphill or downhill to more streets and alleys, shops and homes and apartments. The streets were free of trash and only occasional car or delivery van came along. Mostly just pedestrian traffic. At an intersection/square we passed the Torre dell Orogadagio (tower) where one side of this square the walls were pierced with three “vents” in the form of the star of David. This marked the ancient Jewish settlement. On to another square which fronted the Chisea di S. Catarina (church) and the Palazzo Corvaja. We turned down the Via Teatro Greco which ran parallel to the steep cliff nearby. That took us to the open Greek Theater dating back to the 3^rd century BC. It is still used for performances. Sitting on a mountain top, it overlooks the city and the sea. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taormina

side street

side street

Greek Theater

Greek theater

Greek theater

Greek theater

Mt. Etna smoking

view up the shore

Mt. Etna towered over all of this and was smoking today. After our guide told us all about the theater's history and architecture we had free time to climb to the top for a view of the theater and the city and then worked our way back down to the street for gelato and pastries. At the pasticceria artigianale Mangia e Ninci we found nougat, marzipan and pignolata. Thus fortified we sped back down the streets to the parking lot and squeezed into the tight and narrow seats of the bus for a narrated trip back to the ship. We were back aboard at 1540, dropped our bags and headed back ashore to find a cafe along with friends Ray and Loren. After a snack of pizza we returned to the ship to fluff 'n buff for this night's dress code was Formal.

The noon report: Position at pier of 38º 11.53'N and 015º 33.48'E. Days run 176 nm. Total voyage 6,146 nm. Sunrise 0648. Sunset 1640. The day was sunny but cool enough for us to wear light jackets.

Day 24, 23 November. Sunday. Sorrento

We left Napoli at 0610 in the dark. About 0730 we anchored off Sorrento. Legend says this is where Ulysses heard the call of the Sirens. Today we will be herded onto boats and then deposited ashore. 0840 that process began.

our landing

Because of the tight streets we were first guided to mini-buses, then driven up the hill to transfer to large buses. The plan of the day would take us North on the highway, but not quite back to Napoli. This 1 hour trip showed us apartment buildings, commercial warehouses, construction company lots, greenhouses and more apartment buildings jammed together.

We arrived in the community Ercolano where in the middle of apartment buildings and auto repair shops was the area of excavated ruins of the ancient seaside town of Herculaneum, once the Rivera of the rich and famous of ancient Rome. In 79 AD Mt Vesuvius erupted and covered this town and Pompeii. It had remained forgotten until 1738 when it was discovered and excavation began. It is still under excavation with fitful starts and stops. The sea level dropped and now the site is high and a good distance from the water. Look more into this at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum

At 1430 the bus began the trek back along the same route to Sorrento and deposited us a few blocks from the busy main square. Walking to the square we passed the Tasso Restaurante where we had enjoyed a great meal back in '11 and we mentioned that to several of our group. Released from the tour and with free time we returned to Tasso, followed by several of our group. Being Sunday there were several families having lunch there and it was a lively time. We enjoyed seeing kids again. Great pizzas and wine again.

view back toward Vesuvius and Napoli

We looked into a couple of shops then proceeded to wind our way down the streets sharing the way with cars and scooters, hugging walls as the motor traffic squeezed by. We worked down hill and found stairs to avoid the cars until we reached the bottom and the pier. A short full tender ride back and we were back in our cabin at 1515. At 1700 the hook was recovered and we sailed.

view of Sorrento from our cabin