Around The World Without Flying: Sicily - a walking tour of the lovely port city Messina

Today we arrived in the most picturesque port city I have seen so far - Messina, Sicily, which is nestled right on the bay and surrounded by wooded hills. I had decided that even though I should be packing for my departure tomorrow, I would not waste such a unique opportunity to see this island. I have just come back from a 3-hour guided tour of this city, and I am so glad that went! (I did much of my packing yesterday instead so that I could afford the time.)

We had a very friendly, informative young man guide us around, and for the first time for any of the shore excursions I had been on from this ship and others, we were given a special hearing device so that we could clearly hear everything he said as our group of about 20 walked along. It made such a difference! I would also add that we were really lucky to have clear blue skies, bright sunshine and relatively cool temperatures due to the cool winds that apparently blow here just about all the time.

It was wonderful to see a city with so much character and colour and lots of beautiful trees along its streets (even orange trees with their tempting fruit), and no skyscrapers. It was surprising to hear that the whole city had been destroyed in a major earthquake in 1908, then rebuilt, only with wider, straighter roads. Great care was taken to restore many historic buildings to their former glory. But then much was destroyed again by allied bombing in WW2. So again the citizens rallied and rebuilt their city, and as they are devout Catholics, they believe and pray it will be protected from now on by the Virgin Mary. A statue of her is down by the waterfront. Fortunately Mount Etna, an active volcano just two hours drive from Messina, has ‘spared’ it (so far!).

I also learned that Sicilians speak a different language to Romans, and see themselves as a separate nation, with a very different history. There is a lot of Byzantine architecture in Messina. Our guide took pains to assure us that there is no more crime or violence in Sicily than anywhere else in the world, and there are a lot of soldiers and police about to keep the citizens and buildings safe. We only saw a couple of soldiers guarding a building, but as we pounded the pavements then spent some time in the city square, we felt perfectly safe. We had a few people who were clearly from North Africa come around us whilst we had a superb lemon granita (an icy drink that is a specialty of Sicily) and brioche for morning tea in the town square, selling bits and pieces for tourists, but they were polite and not at all pushy. Even the roads felt very safe, in terms of the traffic. Crossing the roads was no problem at all.

The highlight of our time in Messina was the incredible display that occurs every day at midday at the 100-foot tall bell tower of the cathedral. Down the tower were special displays in a series of vertical recesses, as you will see in my photographs. The golden lion that rules over all flicked its tail and roared three times, and a very loud booming roar it was, then the golden rooster flapped its wings and crowed loudly three times, then while Ave Maria played, a model of the cathedral rose from bare earth, a statue of Jesus rose above two kneeling Roman guards, and angels visited the Virgin Mary, who then waved to the large crowd. Incredible! And I would add this clock tower also houses the largest astronomical clock in the world.

It is with mixed feelings I spend my last day on the ship for this voyage, anyhow. I will be back on it in a few months to go from Southhampton to New York. I will greatly miss the lovely friends I have made. It also will be difficult to get used to living out of a suitcase and racing around everywhere by train and bus after staying in a luxurious floating hotel for 61 days. You may think I will miss the leisurely lifestyle of lying around on deckchairs out in the fresh sea air, but you are wrong there. I never relaxed in a deck chair once. Too boring for me. Besides, it was either too hot or too cold and windy for that to be a pleasure as far as I was concerned. However, lots of my fellow passengers did spend a lot of time sun baking and/or reading on deckchairs. Quite frankly, seeing so much exposed skin on people of mature age, some of whom had clear evidence of surgery for skin cancer, and seeing skin that was either sunburnt or like old leather and covered in moles from far too much time spent exposed to direct sunlight, really worried me. Me, I preferred to have coffee with my friends, write my blog and read sitting on my bed with my feet up, and to go to these lectures and talks that were of interest to me.

I only have a few minutes of WiFi left on the ship, so I can only post four of my photos this time. And I have no idea when I will be free to write the next post. But I will do what I can when I can. Cheers to all.