Tuesday morning started at sea. We had to wait until lunchtime before land was spotted. There were plenty of activities to pick from in the daily program. You could attend a 'muscular awakening' class, a slow waltz lesson, a dice game or even a beauty demo. I opted for a sleep in, a run in the gym and a very long breakfast before heading out to the deck to watch the Italian coast as we approached. It would seem every man and his dog on the boat had the same idea. Prime real estate to take photos was scarce.
As many on Facebook have pointed out, Lady in Blue was the only person who really didn't care for the view into Naples.
Now today I was supposed to head to see Vesuvius. The volcano which famously destroyed Pompeii.
Alas, I was the only English speaker that booked the tour, and they refused to let me take it in Italian for 'safety reasons' (if the life jacket demonstration was anything to go by safety wise, not being able to speak Italian would not have been an impediment...). So instead I was convinced to head to the Italian island of Capri for the afternoon. If anyone is wondering where Riin was in all of this, she headed to see the brothels of Pompeii (if you want to know what I mean by that check my old post on visiting the site titled "Last European Stop - Italy (again)" from June 2012).
The trip to Capri involved a 45min ride of a hydrofoil. We literally stepped off the ship, walked 100meters and were placed on another boat. We then landed on a little island paradise.
There were three common themes on the island - coral jewellery and lemons. And money. There must be a LOT of money on this little rock. The hotel at Anacapri goes for the bargain rate of €8,500 a night, but don't worry that includes breakfast.
The drive up to Anacapri was intense. The road was barely wide enough for a car in each direction and if you swerved too far the only way was down. A long way down. At one point I looked out the window of the mini van and this was all I saw. No railings.
Capri is a pretty classy joint. The only children's clothing store I saw was Dolce and Gabana. Even the taxis were classy.
Not even the shrubs in the street were average.
The street art though looked like it would be at home in my house...
Alas, it was time to head back to ship. We were the last to arrive. We were late in fact (again, this is becoming too common a theme). The 45min hydrofoil ride became an hour and a half in rough seas. The ship had started to sail before I even made it up a few flights of stairs to my room.
The next morning I woke up to a view of the Sicilian city of Messina. I kept thinking the place looked familiar as we drove through the country side and it turns out this is where they filmed the Italian scenes in The Godfather movies.
Today's volcano excursion was a go-er in English so off to Mt Etna we went. Interestingly, that snow you see is the towns only water source. No piped water, it gets delivered to the small tank on your roof each day and you have to ration it.
You can't go to the very top as a tourist anymore after it erupted a few years back and killed a few tourists in the process, but you can go to a (live) double crater at 6000 meters. Riin kept wanting me to come close to the edge for a look. Part of me wondered if she had gotten a few ideas at dinner the night before when I was telling her about the guy in Capri who legend has it would invite his enemies to enjoy the view before giving them a little push...
Those big rocks in foreground apparently came from an eruption from the top and flew down. There was quite the collection of souvenirs up at Etna. Everything was made from lava.
The collection of postcards up there left little to the imagination. Most looked like long forgotten porn from the 1970s. There was even this gem in cartoon form.
Whilst in the souvenir store there was yet another toilet moment (another emerging theme). I was waiting in line when an American woman exited one of the stalls and loudly announced to the woman about to walk in there "I'm sorry about the mess, I have IBS". I have no idea what possessed that woman to announce that to the 15 or so people in line for the ladies room. If you stayed quiet we'd all just assume it had been like that all day...
Anyway in the afternoon it was back to Messina to explore. Unfortunately, much like Genoa our longest day was in a not so interesting port. The statues in the square either needed serious maintenance, or were a monument to the walking dead.
There was apparently a volcano theme park somewhere. Because natural disasters are rainbows and fun!
I was a little bored, and melting in the heat, so I assured Riin I could find my way back to the ship alone. After all the town was small and the ship was huge. Of course I got lost. After 40 minutes of walking in circles I finally spied the ship.
Decided I deserved a reward for being clever enough to find a 16 storey cruise ship and hit the gelato store on the wharf. I thought smurf gelato was bad. These Scilians however, I see where the mafia reputation comes from, nothing is safe from them...
Next stop - Valletta, Malta.
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