Day 17 Sicily

Today is the last day of our first Royal Caribbean cruise.  Tomorrow we have a day at sea then the next morning we dock back in Rome's port, Civitavecchia, where most passengers will leave the ship and a new group will board.  We have a beautiful, calm day at sea today.  This has been such a activity packed cruise that I know everyone needs this day of rest.

Messina

Yesterday we docked in Messina, Sicily.  This is the largest island in the Mediterranean, only about 2 miles from the southern tip of mainland Italy.  The straight of Messina separates the island from the rest of Italy.  Since we have been going off on full day tours with lots of walking at every port, we decided to sign up for something milder here.  The ship didn't dock until 2PM, and was leaving again at 8PM, so we opted for a 4 hour tour to Tindari.   This is a town on top of a mountain with beautiful views of a lagoon and the countryside dotted with olive groves.

Greek-Roman Theater at Tindari

The town is also an important archaeological and religious site. Being up high, overlooking the coast, it is a strategic location.  Sicily has been inhabited at least since the 8th or 9th millennium B.C.  Around the 10th century BC it was settled by Phoenicians and around 734 BC the Greeks arrived.  Later, it was conquered by the Romans. At Tindari, we saw the ruins of a Greek theater which had been restored and modified in the Roman era for their use as a theater for gladiator events.  The area is covered with the ruins of Roman houses and baths, and encircled by a defense wall.

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Tindari

At the very top of the hill is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Tindari, which contains the Black Madonna.   This is a Byzantine sculpture of the Madonna, carved from mahogany.   It is called the Black Madonna because the wood is dark brown.  The story is that at the time when invaders were destroying all churches and religious items in northern Africa (probably Turkey), the monks packed this holy statue in a crate and sent it off on a ship.  No one knows what happened to the ship, but the crate containing the Black Madonna washed up on the shores of Sicily.  With the people found it, they brought it to the top of the nearest mountain and built a small church on the former site of a temple to the Roman Goddess of Agriculture.  (too many gods and goddesses this trip, I can't remember which one this was.)  Recently a new, large church was built around the original little church.   It is a lovely church, with mosaics depicting the rosary along the sides and lots of stained glass windows.  The Black Madonna has a place at the center behind the alter.  A marble Last Supper sits under the alter. 

Black Madonna

The bus ride was about an hour each way and the scenery was lovely along the road.  The little town around the church was old, quaint, and obviously geared towards tourists.  Every building we saw had a shop in front.  We bought a few souvenirs, some fresh almonds and pistachios, and had a nice gelato before returning to the ship.'

We got back too late for the main dining room and tried to order room service, but we couldn't get through.  It's odd, they advertise the room service dinner menu, and you can order breakfast or snacks from room service via the TV, but the only way to order dinner is over the phone.  After waiting with musak for about 10 minutes, we gave up.  I wanted to go to the buffet, but Ray had his mind set on a milk shake at Johnny Rockets, so we went back there again.   This was more fun than the first time.  When we went the other day, we just got hamburgers and left.  This time the waiter gave us 6 nickels to put in the juke box to play our pick of 60's songs.  Then he made me a nice flower out of napkins.  Finally, they put on Donna Summer's "Let's Dance" on the juke box and the 2 waiters & 1 waitress did a line dance in the aisle for us and the 2 other couples who were in there.  That was fun.  We left singing.  Back in the room we sampled a little bottle of Ouzo I had picked up in Greece before calling it a night. 

This morning I woke up in time to see the sunrise - the first time I've been able to do that this trip.   Ray is really tired so I'm letting him rest as much as possible today.  I think these tours have really worn him out.  Tomorrow we signed up for a tour called "Bracciano Lake & Wine Tasting" to get off the ship while they clean and restock for the next cruise.   We have been in a room at the very back of the ship and will be changing to one more towards the center of the ship for the trans-Atlantic crossing.  Getting off will get us out of the way so they can clean the rooms and move our stuff from one room to the other.  They offered 2 tours for back-to-back passengers, but the other was to Rome to see all the things we already saw 2 weeks ago.  I'm hoping this will be a nice relaxing visit to a little Italian village on a lake.