World Cruise - Day 33 - Messina, Italy (Sicily)

I’ve never been to Southern Italy, and it has been on my Bucket List for a while. Everyone talks about the Amalfi Coast and I’ve always wanted to have pizza in Sicily. Both my wishes are coming true on this trip.

Today, we took a bus from the port in Messina to Taormina, which is a small village perched high on a cliff. It has medieval character and is next to the famous Greek Theater built in the 3rd century. The Theater still has concerts to this day and the views of the coast and Mount Etna are breathtaking. It also boasts the smallest lane in Italy (can you guess which one it is from the pictures below?).

After the bus ride back, we went in search of the best pizza in Sicily (Leslie and I did our research before we left the states). We had a map printed out and was told by our tour guide that it was about a 10-minute walk from the port. No problem, right? Wrong. After we finally found it, the restaurant was closed! It was Saturday, and it seems that many of the shops and restaurants were closed. Who knows why…

Anyway, I looked up Yelp on my phone for the next closest pizza place. I called to make sure they were open, and they were. Turns out, the new place was very close to the ship and we wouldn’t have had to walk as far as we did. Oh well, the pizza was delicious, and so was the caesar salad and local wine.

We still had about 2 hours to kill before we were required to be on board, so we walked around and took some pics of a fountain and church that were nearby. Leslie also got some cannoli that she'd been craving.

Back to the boat with 45 minutes to spare, so we went and got our laptops from our room, got off the ship again, and went into the port where we could get free wi-fi, download pictures and work on our blog posts. We really utilize our time in the ports, and try and use the free wi-fi, since the wi-fi on the ship is so limited and we have to pay for it. Anytime there is free wi-fi (on buses, etc), people on the ship go crazy for it. It’s pretty funny, actually.

Excited for the Amalfi Coast tomorrow!