Messina, Italy

 The next day was a Curtis day. He picked Italy and Lily picked Croatia so I put them in charge of the ports in their chosen countries and then Josh was in charge of Rome and that left me with Greece. Between his research and my sister, who has recently been to Italy, Curtis realized there wasn't a lot to see in Messina (which is in Sicily) and so we actually walked from the ship to the train station and then rode for about 40 minutes and then took a bus up the mountain to a beautiful little town called Taormino. 

 


 




We started by visiting an ancient theater and then walked around the town that was filled with shops and restaurants. We got pulled into a candy store because Josh wanted a picture of Lily by the chocolate fountain and then they gave out a ton of free samples and before you know it, we had bought a box for my sister as a gift. Curtis really liked the ceramics and so he got a bowl and a cactus thing and Josh got a magnet of the pine cone that was everywhere (a symbol of being welcome) and it was fun. We got a maritozzi that was delicious and a fried cone-shaped thing that I didn't like (the rice inside messed up the texture). Then we walked through some beautiful gardens and shopped some more and Josh asked the owner of one of the shops where the best pizza was so then we went to that restaurant. 







 


 They brought us this amazing bread platter with three little bowls of things we couldn't quite identify. We figured out one was sun-dried tomato paste and Lily guessed the middle one was a pumpkin puree but the third one was mysterious. It was a light purple color and so I was guessing it was beets but turns out it was red onion puree and it was my favorite. Then we got a diavola pizza and it was really delicious. Josh was going on and on about how good it was and finally declared it the best pizza he has ever eaten and later that this was the best dining experience of his life. It was a lovely afternoon sitting outside as this adorable little Italian restaurant eating delicious bread and pizza. It was a beautiful moment that we all appreciated. 






 


 






Then we had to start our trek back so we took the bus down the mountain and the train back to Messina (cute Lily fell asleep on every train) and then we walked back to the ship. We went by a very cool old church and clock tower and we even had time to grab the most delicious cannoli, freshly made by an Italian grandpa. It was so good and a lot messy. Also my phone died early on in the day so I had to copy these from Shutterfly where we put all of our photos so that's why they are a bit messed up. We got back on the ship and none of us wanted to change so we went back to the Irish pub for dinner, which had amazing views of the sunset and we liked that we could order anything on the menu. A great day in Sicily!



 
 


 









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