A Visit to Sicily: Mt. Etna and Taormina

Cruise Note:  You can see what we see from our cruise ship at any time through Royal Princess’ bridge cam at http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/?shipCode=rp ) 

Greetings from Naples!  I bought a beer in the cruise terminal at a bar that has free Wi-Fi  so I have a decent Internet connection.  I will post as many photos from yesterday's visit to Sicily as I can in the short time remaining before we sail.  I will try to post photos from today's tour of the Amalfi coast and the ruins of Pompeii tomorrow when we visit Rome, if I can.

 

Royal Princess docked in Messina early in the morning on Saturday and by 7 a.m. we were off on a shore excursion to Mt. Etna, the infamous, active volcano where we visited the Crater Silvestri, one of many craters associated with the volcano.  This crater was created by an eruption in 1896.  After that we had free time to explore the picturesque hillside town of Taormina, which has been a resort destination since Greek and Roman times.

 

Here are some favorite pic picks:

We first saw Mt. Etna as we drove up to it on our bus.  The volcano is capped by
clouds along with smoke and steam released from the main crater. 

 



Another great view of Etna from our bus.

New lava has very little vegetation.  It takes about 100 years for plants to sprout from lava.

Some areas around Etna look like the surface of the moon.

In addition to looking at the volcano, we also ate the best cannoli we ever tasted during a visit to a tourist bar.  Fresh squeezed orange juice, a specialty in the area, was also served.  The OJ was was a contender for the best we ever tasted.



Some adventurous visitors climbed up to a the site of an eruption that occurred in 2001. Others took a gondola.

We were satisfied to visit the closer Silvestri Crater created by an eruption in 1896.
 

Ladybugs, carried up to the volcano by wind, group up and get acquainted.  Someone
in our group claimed the ladybugs gathered here to mate.  I cannot confirm.  Does anyone know?

Etna has lava rock in several different colors. The red is caused by the presence of iron.

This could be the surface of Mars.

The vegetation here seemed very out of place.

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Here are the tourists stores build on relatively recent lava.

After leaving Etna we visited the quaint tourist town of Taormina, which is perched on a mountainside.
This is the view of a coastal town from a public garden in Taormina.

A square in Taormina.

We had some exceptional pizza and spaghetti Bolognese in this restaurant in Taormina.

There are ruins in Taormina dating back to Greek and Roman times.

As at Mt. Etna, the passengers from several cruise ships meant crowded streets, shops and buses.

Back on board the Royal Princess we prepared to depart Messina for Naples.

Leaving the Port of Messina.



Two other cruise ships prepare to depart Messina as well.