Mediterranean Cruise Day 3: Messina

Our first shore excursion! It was just amazing to wake up and look out the window and see an entire city's landscape.

Kristin and I did not purchase a tour package for this city, so we were on our own. The first thing we did was walk to a church-like building we saw way up the hill (it was the Shrine of Cristo Re). After a long hike up a steep hill (the entire city is built into a mountain side), we arrived only to find it was not open for tours. However, the view of the city was beautiful, and a tour bus stopped by to also enjoy the view.

From the shrine we decided to head into the rest of town, but we ended up going way, way south of where we wanted (it included a stop at the Royal Palace Hotel so I could use the restroom). When we finally looked at a map to see where we were, we discovered we were not even close to where we were headed. For your perspective--and I wish we had remembered to buy pedometers--we walked about .47 miles west to the shrine, .45 miles southwest to the hotel, then .57 miles southeast, then .11 miles northeast to the bay and then .34 miles to get back to our docking point (altogether at least 2 miles in hot weather).

Along the way, we stopped at a cafe and sat outside--I had an espresso, and Kristin had a coke. Then we did some shopping--and I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I bought a speedo that was on ultra clearance for 5 Euros. From there we went to another small shop for some gelatto, then we backtracked to the Norman Cathedral with the world's largest astronomical clock (many other tourists where here). It was at this plaza that we had lunch: wine and a margherita pizza. Thus in one day we had espresso, gelatto and pizza, three food items for which Italy is known.

Finally, it was time to call it a day. Back on the ship, we sat out at the pool for the rest of the afternoon, then we had dinner at Chin Chin's (an Asian restaurant). Earlier we had discovered "happy hour," which takes places from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and gets you 1/2 off the extra charge at the premium restaurants (that would have been nice to know for Cagney's the day before). So we ate at 6 p.m. with just a few other people in the restaurant, but at least we saved some money.

If memory serves, we saw a magic act that night at the theater. This guy is a two-time world-champ, which begs the question, why is he on a cruise ship? Well, he brought this up during the show, and he said he didn't like Vegas much and prefers the intimacy of a cruise. I thought he was entertaining, but his show was too short (less than 1 hour).

After the show, we had a drink and then turned in.