Italy

4/25/2023 – Messina, Sicily
On our day in Sicily, we chose to walk around the town, with a good little hike up to see the views from the Shrine of Cristo Re – a war memorial for WWII soldiers built on the ruins of a Norman Castle, and then over to the Sanctuary of Madonna di Montalto, again with beautiful views, where Mike had the opportunity to visit with Pope John Paul II. Before heading back down, Mike found a bakery, which made his heart go pitty pat. Lots of great statues and public art on display. The main event, in addition to visiting the inside of the 12th century Duomo with 13th-15th century portals, was to watch the bell tower clock show at noon. As we arrived, it was getting very crowded, but we still had 30 minutes until show time. We walked across the street and found a little bar with a high-top table for two. Local beer and an antipasto plate and great direct view away from the crowds. After the show ended, a local television news crew stopped and interviewed us. The bar owner was happy that his place would be on the evening news, and he said we would be famous! The Bell Tower, which

we climbed later in the afternoon, is the world’s biggest mechanical clock connected to symbolical and allegorical moving metal statues. Messina is a beautiful city on the northeast coast of Sicily and was the destination of the unofficial “Race to Messina” between US General Patton & British Field Marshall Montgomery. Patton arrived just a few hours before Montgomery and so got credit for securing Sicily.

4/26/2023 – Naples/Sorrento
Travelling north in the Tyrrhenian Sea along the west coast of Italy, we arrived in Naples. If we could have a re-do, we would have explored Naples on our own. Instead, we took a tour called “Limoncello & Sorrento”, which conjured up views in my mind of slowly sipping Limoncello under a canopy of lemon and olive trees, followed by a leisurely stroll around the beautiful town of Sorrento. Instead, our tour left late; the tour of the factory was a speed walk-through and the tasting was maybe a ½ ounce pour – and all had to be completed (along with buying products!) in 15 minutes; we were stuck in traffic for probably 45 minutes; and then we were given one hour to walk around Sorrento. So, given the options of eating, shopping, or walking, we opted to walk – down the hill to the waterfront and back up again. Despite all that, the drive through the Sorrento region was beautiful, with great views of the Isle of Capri

and Mt. Vesuvius. Returning to the ship mid-afternoon in a state of near starvation and having had one of the worst guides ever, we decided to cancel our remaining Viking excursions for the trip and to go it alone. Never ones to have a bad day, we made Limoncello out of lemons.

4/27/2023 – Civitavecchia/Rome
But we had one more booked excursion that was non-cancellable, and it was fabulous. We did a Rome on Your Own trip, which was

basically a bus ride into Rome with an escort to give us maps and answer any questions. Our bus was parked underneath the Vatican, so our first stop was Vatican Square. Every school child was on a field trip, but we had a great time, nonetheless, doing a modified version of the Rick Steves Heart of Rome Walk. The walk from Vatican City was about a mile to Campo di’ Fioro, where we visited the market and then headed over to the huge Piazza Navona with great fountains & statues, and then walked past the Italian Senate before arriving at the Pantheon. It’s free and the line was long (maybe ¼ mile), and moving at a snail’s pace. So we took photos of the outside, peeked into the inside, and found a great little restaurant on a side street where we could eat pizza, drink Italianbeer, and have a view of the side of the Pantheon. Rick said not to visit there mid-day, and he was right! After lunch, we continued our walk and visited places where Landon and I went last summer, including the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. After visiting the Trinita dei Monti

church at the top of the Spanish Steps, we made the mile or so walk back to St. Peter’s Square with a beautiful walk along the Tiber River and, of course, had some gelato along the way. Landon was excited to see photos of us in places he and I visited just 10 months ago. And our long bus ride from the port of Civitavecchia was absolutely worth our time. Rome is still huge and dirty, but we had a great day.