Messina

Now this is how we expected the Mediterranean to be, blue seas, blue skies and warm sunshine.  It wasn’t too warm though with the temperature rising from around 63F as we entered the port at 8.00am, rising to 72F at the end of the afternoon.

Let me first explain the two Ted pictures; each night our cabin steward Agnelo takes great delight in sitting him in different positions – we have found him on the windowsill facing out and facing in, we have found him tucked in bed under the covers and these are the last two configurations where he has the notice regarding change of clocks and the next day’s proceedings.  Ted also features in some of the pictures we have taken and on this page they were obviously taken in Messina.

Messina is a busy port and from the harbour it is easy to see mainland Italy which is served by numerous ferries – we saw lots of them heading out just as we were coming in, presumably people going to work.  The town is a lot larger than the part we saw for we just walked to the main square and luckily got the last two seats on an open air tour bus. €10 each for a 45 minute tour was not bad and we saw all the highlights of the immediate area and then got back to the main square in time for noon, which is when the real highlight of Messina is shown.  Attached to the main cathedral is a tall clock tower and at noon just after the strikes have finished all the animals and figures in the clock tower start to move.  First a lion wags his tail, waves the flag he is holding, pulls back his head and roars – then a cock crows several times, a replica of the cathedral appears from desert sand, a procession of angels and attendants move to bring on the Nativity.  Very impressive and the whole thing lasts about 15 minutes.

Having seen the show, done the tour, bought some cards and a fridge magnet we strolled back to the Oriana and had a nice cup of tea.  It was warm enough for me to change into shorts for the first time so we headed up to a relatively empty deck and found the swimming pool completely empty.  This was too good an opportunity to miss so I donned my bathers and had the pool to myself (including the pulsating hot tub) for a good 45 minutes.  A grand day out…..

As I write this I expect that Hilary has made her way to the small C deck area which we used to watch us come into Messina harbour, it really is a good place from which to watch the ship’s comings and goings and not too many people know about it.

Casual dress tonight and the ballad singer who we missed last time around so we are looking forward to that.  Right this was all written offline with Word so I will try and post it complete with photographs….