Since we were arriving in Taormina, Sicily, Italy this morning, we awoke early this morning. We had breakfast in the Lido Café and then we went to the Fitness Center for our daily workout. After our workout we got ready to visit this port of call.
At about 8:00 AM the local authorities cleared the ship and Captain Otto announced that we could go ashore. Given the limited docking facilities at this port of call we needed to take the ships tender from the ship over to the docking area. From the ship we could see just what a beautiful island this is. It is very picturesque with lush landscape along with a variety of mountains and hills of varying shapes and sizes. From the ship we could see Mt. Etna, which was covered with snow.
We boarded the tender and it took us to Giardini Naxos, which is a little gateway port for the town of Taormina. We then boarded a complimentary shuttle provided by Crystal for the thirty-minute drive to the town of Taormina. This town is situated at a relatively high elevation. We went through several tunnels as we drove towards the town and we could see beautiful scenery all around us. We saw lots of lemon trees filled with plenty of lemons. Similar to our visit to Sorrento, Italy in the fall of 2005, the lemons were of an enormous size. We also saw other fruit trees.
Our bus dropped us right outside town. We have to say that this town is one of the nicest towns that we have ever visited. While we have been to Sorrento, Santa Margarita and Portofino, Italy, and of course so many other towns in our travels, this town has a warm feel with lots of character. As we mentioned, the other day, traveling to these ports of call in the April/May or September/October time frame is a perfect time to visit as the temperature is wonderful and you don’t encounter the crowds that you find during the height of the summer season.
We walked all along the town including walking up and down the main street and then along many of the side streets which intersected the main street. We stopped in various pastry shops and admired all of the delectable deserts and the aroma was wonderful. We did stop to have some gelato and we sat outside the store to enjoy this treat.
We also passed by many hotels, restaurants, and stores and above many of the shops and restaurants and adjacent to these buildings were homes along with many apartments above these buildings. We had an outstanding time walking the town and looking at all of the marvelous scenery all around us from the beautiful architecture of the town, to the shoreline with many beautiful beaches to the lush vegetation all around us. Again, we would say that this is one of the nicest towns that we have ever visited and we will add this town to our list of locations to eventually visit again on a land based vacation.
We return to the ship a little after 1:00 PM and had a nice lunch in the Lido Café. From the café, we had a marvelous view of this picturesque island.
We ran a few errands this afternoon. In the early evening we attended the captain’s formal farewell reception. This is the sixth farewell reception we have attended, as this current segment of the World Cruise will be coming to an end in just a few days. We sat with three other couples from our trivia team along with one other solo traveler who is one of the passengers who has played doubles table tennis with Keith.
After the reception, we went to dinner in the Main Dining Room. We had ordered a special entrée in advance and enjoyed a wonderful meal. Anne Marie ordered a special cake from the dining room ahead of time for Keith knowing that it was one of Keith’s favorite deserts. It was wonderful.
This evening we are cruising to the next port of call, Naples, which we should reach by early Morning.
Keith & Anne Marie
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