A Day on Sicily

Sunday 21 September 2026. We are on a cruise from Malta to Barcelona in Spain which goes the long way round. It's a ten-day cruise and there are no sea days, every day will see us in port somewhere around the Mediterranean.

Today we have arrived at the island of Sicily, famed for its being the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It once had its own species of wolf - the Sicilian Wolf but that was driven to extinction during the 20th Century by deforestation and hunting. The last possible sighting of it was in 1970. Likewise there had been a species of miniature elephant roaming the island. Last sighting of that was around 20,000 years ago.

The island's other claim to fame, apart from the Mafia, is the rather impressive Mount Etna, seen here as we passed in a coach. It is one of the most active volcanos in Europe and is in almost constant state of eruption. Records of eruptions, some of which can last five years or more, have been found well into the BCE period of time with evidence of the earliest having occurred some half a million years BCE. It even has an old legend of being the home of King Arthur and his half-sister Morgan-le-fay...

Our first stop is Taormina, a lovely place that we visited in 2008 and whilst it hasn't changed very much, the shops have moved about as each year they have to apply anew for their premises. It's a Sunday today in any case so many of the big name shops are closed. What a shame...

Here coaches have to park on the bottom level of a multi-storey car park. The vehicle entrance is not far above sea level and the entry/exit for those on foot is on level 7 as the main streets sit more than halfway up a steep rise in ground level. Toilets are on a level somewhere in between and thankfully there's a lift to get you up to the top and back down again. The view from the top is stunning.

We bravely set off trying to keep up with the tour guide but I was struggling to walk so fast and we usually reached the group as he was coming to the end of eplaining something and then set off again. Having been before we knewwhere he was heading anyway and we caught up with them as he went off to buy tickets into the Greek/Roman amphitheater - more properly just theatre as the seating just goes around one side in a semi-circle rather than the full encirclement. The Greek theatre afforded patrons a view beyond of the sea as it was built right on the edge of the hillside, but the Romans added their trademark brickwork at the side and around the back of the stage, effectively blocking this view.

We entered this time at the stage level. The last time we had entered right at the top of the tiers of seating. I found the guide and said we would make our own way back to the coach park as we were dur to visit a hotel for lunch and the a mountain-top village. We stopped at a cafe for an ice cream and a lemonade drink that had a squirt of orange in it - absolutely lush.

Lunch at the hotel was predictably pasta - I'm not a great fan... Not even a lukewarm fan if I'm honest. Several options were on offer but they were all pasta of one sort or other. A bit like going into a chippy and all they have are fat chips, skinny chips, crinkle cut chips, a huge whole potato dropped in a pan of fat... I tried my best. "It's just flour and water," I kept telling myself and then I'd think, "Oh yuck it's just flour and water..."

After lunch the coach took us up to a village called Castelmola. The guide's pronunciation made it sound more like Castelmora. There would be many steps of steep streets and I'd had enough. The coach driver was happy enough to let us stay on the coach. We had the front row seats so had a good view and he just left the driving seat, sat back in the seats opposite us, put his feet up and went to sleep, snorting and snoring as the mood took him. I had the A4 sketchbook with me and, with time limited, opted to use a pen to sketch the scene before the coach.

I must have done something right, as several passengers when they climbed back onto the coach and walked past us said "Wow!" or something similar. Once we set off down the hillside back to our ship, docked in Catania, it started to rain heavily. We spent the night in Horizons bar listening to Tom and Maris. I'm not a late owl these days I'm afraid and if I try to be then I just go to sleep wherever I am anyway. We caught their 10:00pm slot and then had to leave them with one spot still to go.

Oceania Sirena Cruise Index

Taormina Excursion

Monday 7 July 2008. We have left the Island Star in Messina and travelled by coach for our morning excursion to Taormina.

We got off the tour coach and found ourselves in a car park under a cliff. A lift took us up several floors and we then had a few steep paths and steps to climb before we came to a wonderful and ancient town, full of character. Our first sight though was the splendid sight of Mount Etna bellowing smoke.

There is a great view over the coast and our elevated position makes it all the more spectacular.

Taormina itself is a medieval town and has plenty to offer the tourist. We are being led by the tour guide to the amphitheatre, so we clock all the things we want to look at in more detail on our way back.

We pass under an archway in what was obviously once the town wall and come immediately to a large piazza where our guide stops and becons us to gather around her.

Once at the amphitheatre she will buy our admission tickets and then we have some free time to explore the theatre and town before meeting here again for the trip back to the ship.

On our way to the amphitheatre a chance glance upwards rewards me with the sight of a mini-skirted girl leaning against her balcony doorway, cigarette in hand. Who was she and what was she thinking?

We reach the amphitheatre and the guide goes off to get our tickets. Behind us, if we look up we can see a fortress high up on the hilltop. Capturing it looks a daunting proposition from this viewpoint!

To one side is this balcony. Taormina is well endowed with balconies and we shall see more later.

Our guide returns, clutching a bunch of tickets which she hands out, reminding us of our meeting time and place. The amphitheatre is Greek in style but built with bricks, suggesting that the Romans built over or repaired an existing structure.

At the edge of the amphitheatre where we are about to climb up the terraces to the top, we have another excellent view of Mount Etna, spewing smoke out from the crater. Any fire or molten lava is hidden from us as the crater faces away. It started erupting on 13 May 2008 and was still going quite happily. Europe's largest volcano, it reaches almost 11,000 feet (although the eruptions tend to make the volcano higher or shorter depending on whether it adds lava to the top or blows it up!) It is the first time we have ever seen an erupting volcano that didn't have either Tommy Lee Jones or Pierce Brosnan trying to save the day and I have to say it's impressive when you see it, even though on this occasion all we saw was smoke! However the cruise has still to present us with more volcanic experiences as will become apparent later!

We climbed up a series of leg trembling steps until we reached the very top of the amphitheatre. The setting is breathtaking (heck - the steps are breathtaking!) and the theatre is still in use for concerts and theatrical productions to this day. Hence the modern seats that have been installed on the lower terraces.

From the very top of the amphitheatre there is a stunning view of the surrounding countryside and coastline.

We'll end for this time with a view of the amphitheatre and its wonderful backdrop from the very top of the terraces. Oh, my legs....

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The Straits of Messina

Sunday 6 July 2008. We had a day at sea, lolling about on the pool deck, mp3 player plugged into the ears, bodies of all shapes and sizes, some gorgeous, some horrific, some downright comical, passing by.

I had taken my own poor example off to be pampered a bit in the spa, the steakhouse, the bars...

Monday 7 July 2008. The following morning saw us pulling into Messina - our first visit to Sicily. I never get tired of this - watching the coast slip gently by, about to land us somewhere we have never been before.

As we get further into the straits, the buildings along the coast become a little more industrial and we start to see a few skyscrapers amongst the villas.

Soon we are approaching Messina itself. Ferries dock and leave, taking passengers to and from the Italian mainland.

The Straits of Messina were bombed extensively during World War II, but little if any evidence of that hardest of times is apparent from the decks of the Island Star as we approach our docking point.

The tune from The Godfather is going round my head incessantly. Unconsciously I begin to hum it, thus ensuring it will from that point also go round the head of everyone in earshot... "That bloody song's going through my head now!" Fran complained. Told you...

A line of coaches waits to take passengers on the various excursions. We are taking a half-day excursion to Taormina, a small town with an ancient amphitheatre and a view of Mount Etna, that we have been told is in the act of erupting. At the foot of the gangway is a person in a dolphin suit and a photographer, both being ignored by the majority of passengers more eager to get to the tour coaches.

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