Messina

This is what we woke up to yesterday morning -- the Virgin Mary, towering over the harbor in Messina, Sicily, reminding us in Latin that she blesses us and the city itself.

Yes, after two days at sea, we finally felt dry land again! Dave and I didn't buy any arranged excursions in Sicily, so I took a look at Google Maps and got some ideas for sights to see. We decided to stick to Messina rather than trying to get to points more distant, though the minute we disembarked we encountered taxi touts pushing trips to Taormina. We ignored them.

We started our sightseeing just outside Messina cathedral, with its famous astronomical clock tower and elaborate Orion fountain. Messina was virtually destroyed by an earthquake in 1908, and much of the original 12th-century cathedral was rebuilt after that disaster (and again after bombing in World War II). The astronomical clock, the largest in the world, was installed in the rebuilt bell tower in the 1930s.

The interior of the cathedral featured elaborate tile mosaics on the ceiling.

On the cathedral plaza a woman named Giovanna was selling tickets for a mini-train tour that carries visitors around the city, and we decided to do that, just to get the lay of the land and see some of the main sights.

The train (which played cheerful Italian music that brought to mind Super Mario Brothers) took us up to the Tempio de Cristo Rey, a church high above the city with a stunning panoramic view. Dave and I were both happy we didn't try to walk up there. (The temperature yesterday reached 39º C or 102º F, according to Dave's phone, though online sources tell me now that it was actually more like 36º C or 97º F. In any case, it was hot!)

We also saw the Norman-era Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, built in the 12th century and one of the few structures to survive the 1908 earthquake.

The train didn't take us to either the Poseidon or Falcon fountains, which are supposedly must-sees, or to the steps that lead up the hill to a nearby monastery. So we decided to walk around a bit afterwards. On the way we came across the building above, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele III, a shopping arcade built in the 1920s with a stunning interior (though it needs restoration work).

Here are the steps leading up to the monastery from the Falcon fountain, which you can't quite see at the base of the slope. That's the Tempio de Cristo Rey on a hill in the background. The steps are lined with modern sculptures of birds decorated by local artists to pay homage to the figures on the fountain. That guy on the left was watering the tired-looking sunflowers along the path, bless him.

Here's a video of some of our Messina sightseeing, overdubbed with some copyright-free Italian-style music so you can experience something similar to the musical accompaniment we had on our train tour! You'll see:

1. Some generic street scenes from the train
2. A view of the Tempio de Cristo Rey on a distant hilltop
3. The panoramic city view from the temple, including the Madonna overlooking the harbor and our cruise ship
4. A quick look at one of the modern bird sculptures on the steps near the Falcon fountain
5. The interior of the Vittorio Emanuele III shopping gallery, with its stained glass ceilings
6. The interior of the 12th century Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani

After all our exploration we sat in a cafe, where I had a limoncello spritz, which was a new drink for me. Quite refreshing! Then we beat a retreat to the air-conditioned ship, where we rested in the afternoon. Today we're in Salerno and visiting the Amalfi Coast.

I'm Ready for Dry Land

Dave and I were sitting in a lounge just off this foyer yesterday evening when I said to him, "I haven't taken a single picture today." As you know, that's pretty unheard of for me. But given that yesterday was another entire day at sea, I just didn't see much worth photographing. Fortunately I'd already taken the picture above on Monday evening, so I wasn't concerned about having something to blog!

Then I took the camera out on the balcony of our cabin after dinner, and took pictures of the unremarkable sunset:

That's roughly in the area of Siderno, on the southern side of Italy's boot. Now we're at port in Messina, and Dave and I will be back on dry land in an hour or two, ready for some walking and exploring.

Not that I didn't get any exercise yesterday. I was back on the treadmill in the gym, and I used the weights too -- another thing I haven't done in about 15 years! It felt good, though.

And I polished off another New Yorker, this one including a page-turner of an article about the Tate brothers. As appalling as it was, it made for really good reading. I think those guys (particularly Andrew) are narcissistic personalities at best, and psychopaths at worst. There's literally nothing redeeming there. It's terrifying that young men think he's a role model, though I hope he simply embodies their rebellious teenage instincts and they eventually grow to realize he's a charlatan.

Dave, meanwhile, took a tour of the ship, learning about all the backstairs operations, peeking into the kitchen and taking a look at the bridge. He's big on boats and boating, so this was fascinating for him. I have some idle curiosity about it all but I figured I didn't need to pay to attend myself. I just let him tell me about it!

No Kotor

As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, our plans changed and we spent the day at sea. We were supposed to go to Kotor, Montenegro, but someone -- I don't know whether it was our captain or the port officers in Kotor -- determined that it wouldn't be safe because of weather conditions. Dave and I were skeptical of this explanation because the weather report called for sunshine and maximum winds of 13 kph. Not exactly hurricane strength.

But I did some reading later and apparently Kotor can be a tricky port. It requires tenders (small shuttle boats) from the ship to land, and they have to zip through a relatively narrow channel to get to town. Apparently the area is prone to katabatic winds similar to the Santa Ana winds in California, and indeed there was a wind advisory in Dubrovnik, where we had been just the day before. Who knows what was going on. Gotta trust the captain.

That (above) was our view for much of the day, as we lounged around and read in our cabin. Still not too shabby! Of course there are also plenty of public places to go on the ship -- bars and restaurants and lounges. In late morning I went to the fitness center and spent about 40 minutes walking and running on a treadmill. I haven't run on a treadmill in probably 15 years, and I pushed myself pretty hard, but it felt good. I'm thinking about joining a gym again and this was a good reminder what that feels like.

It's hard to know where we are at any given moment, because there's just open water out there, sometimes with a faint line of a land form on the horizon. But then I found an online cruise ship monitoring site that gives our location. Yesterday we slowly made our way down the midpoint between the Albanian coast and Italy. At one point my phone pinged a cell tower in Greece, which I know because I got a "welcome to Greece!" message from my phone carrier. Now, as I look out at the water, I can see the tip of Italy's boot heel in the distance.

Sunset off Dubrovnik, Sunday night

I'm trying not to think too much about the carbon impact of this trip. As I understand it, cruise ships are tremendous consumers of fuel and generators of waste, so I'm aware we're not doing the planet any favors. Sometimes within the context of marital compromise you have to set aside personal qualms, you know? This is the world we live in.

And cruising is very pleasant. I understand why people like these sorts of trips. The ship is so comfortable, and we have anything we could want within easy reach. If I crave a kiwi fruit, it's there. If we need entertainment, there are games and puzzles and quizzes and any number of shows and that kind of thing. Fortunately, as we all know, I can pretty much entertain myself, though I was tempted -- lubricated by a martini -- to participate in the onboard archery competition last night. What could go wrong?

(Seriously, the arrows were tipped with rubber suction cups. Nothing could go wrong. But Dave was hungry so we proceeded to dinner instead.)

I'm even on track to burn through my backlog of New Yorkers!

Last night, being a glutton for punishment, I watched a new documentary on Netflix about the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012. Watching it while actually on a cruise ship may seem foolhardy, but it was really good and very dramatic. Dave fell asleep.

We're at sea again today before docking in Messina, in Sicily, tomorrow. I plan to spend some more time in the fitness center!

King's Landing

I'm getting a late start on the ol' blog this morning. I woke up at 3 a.m. or so, and lay there for a while before turning over and falling asleep again -- and the next thing I knew it was 7 a.m.! These staterooms are great for sleeping. We have a comfortable bed and blackout curtains, and though I don't register the movement of the ship I wouldn't doubt that one some cellular level I'm being lulled by the thrum of the engines.

We were in Dubrovnik yesterday, which, as we were continually reminded by our tour guide and by t-shirts and other tourist paraphernalia, is the filming location for the TV show "Game of Thrones." It fills in for King's Landing, the capital city in that mythical show. I've only ever seen the first season of "Game of Thrones" and I wasn't a huge fan, so this doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but it has become a driver of regional tourism.

I guess the production crew must use CGI to erase all the modern landscape features, like fiberglass boats.

Anyway, it was a beautiful little city, but positively packed with tourists. I knew even before getting here that it's considered one of the most over-touristed locations on the planet, because the old city itself is tiny, and when cruise ships come and dump thousands of people into its streets it becomes a seething mass of humanity. But we managed.

We wandered the ancient streets with our guide, hearing about the city's past and its massive fortified walls, which kept out the Venetians and the Ottomans and the Serbians and the Montenegrins and various other invaders over the centuries. (They didn't successfully keep out Napoleon or the Hapsburgs.) It was heavily damaged in the Yugoslavian civil war in the 1990s, but has been restored since.

Visitors can take stairs up to the top of the walls and walk along the battlements, but it costs 40 Euros, which I thought was excessive! I skipped that option.

Then Dave and I settled into a cafe, where our coffee came in these fun cups. We had some avocado toast and then I went wandering a bit more to take photos.

We were supposed to go up in a cable car, but there was initially some doubt whether that would happen. We had quite a bit of rain in the morning, followed by high winds, and when we first got into town the cable car was closed. But we got word from the guide just before our free time that it had reopened, thank goodness.

Here's our guide, Darko -- "like the scary American movie," he said. (He means "Donnie Darko," in case you haven't seen it. It's very good.) He befriended this crow on previous visits and as we walked up to the cable car, it landed on his hand, begging for treats. (It didn't eat the poisonous oleander flowers, don't worry.)

Here's the view to the south from the cable car terminal on the mountaintop above Dubrovnik. The mountains in the near distance are in Bosnia, and farther away in Montenegro.

And here's a video that will show you the descent from the cable car terminal, with views over the city. (And an opening clip showing the main square in Dubrovnik. All the bleachers and plywood are for the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, featuring outdoor theater, music and dance performances.)

We were supposed to go ashore in Montenegro today, but apparently those plans have changed because of weather -- something about the tenders to shore not being able to operate safely. From my seat by the window it looks fine out there, bright and sunny, but I guess it must be very windy. Fortunately Dave and I didn't buy an excursion today so we're not missing anything pre-planned. We were just going to go into town and hang out, which we can do on the ship!

A River Cruise and Split

I spent most of our day in Split actually not in Split, but in the small town of Omis (pronounced Omeesh) and on the nearby Cetine River. As I mentioned, Dave and I bought an excursion that consisted of a river cruise and lunch in the forest, followed by a city highlights tour in Split. Dave didn't feel well enough to go, so I went on my own, along with about 20 other people from our ship.

We took a bus down the coastal road to Omis and were given a short time to wander the tiny town. Tommy is one of the main supermarket chains in Croatia, from what I can tell. I was seeing them all over the place.

Here's our trusty river boat, the Marco Polo.

And this is the scenery along the river. The Cetine River flows through a deep canyon with steep limestone walls, with little ramshackle fishing shacks along the banks. I have no idea what that round building is on the hilltop. Some kind of old fortification, maybe.

Rock-climbing is a popular activity in the canyon, as is ziplining. (I did neither, not that I was offered the option.) Can you see the rock-climber in the picture above? He did have ropes, at least.

The river seemed very clean and the water clear. I saw lots of ducks.

We chugged upstream for a while and eventually stopped at a sort of outdoor beer garden, where we disembarked and were given wine (at 11 a.m.!) and a plate of locally produced meat, cheese and olives with bread.

Then we piled back onto our bus (which had wound down the canyon road to the beer garden to retrieve us), and headed back to Split.

The main sight in Split is Diocletian's Palace, which was built by the Roman emperor around 300 A.D. Diocletian ruled the Eastern portion of the empire from here. (Apparently he was from this part of the world, so he was returning to his roots.)

We traipsed around the palace and got an overly long explanation of Diocletian's reign and temperament from our tour guide, who loved using the phrase "as such" to conclude many of her sentences. It's just as well Dave wasn't there because that little verbal tic would have driven him crazy. As you can see above, tourists can pose with costumed Roman soldiers in one of the palace's courtyards.

Just as our tour ended, the skies opened and we got a deluge of rain, along with thunder and lightning. I ducked into a nearby coffee shop with the curious name "@Noon" and got an Americano. A Canadian woman asked to sit at my table and we chatted about our travels -- she was here for an electronic music festival. She tipped me off to something called the "vestibule," a part of the palace I hadn't seen with an oculus, or round opening, in the ceiling -- so I went back and found that after the rain let up.

Then I wandered through town for a while, taking pictures, before heading back to the ship.

I told Dave about the day and he said, "It sounds like I didn't miss much." I must not be a very compelling travel narrator!

I was very amused to stumble across the Cafe Bar Monty Python. I wonder if anyone goes in there and tries to do the dead parrot routine?

Here's a little video showing the beer garden where our tour group ate, along with some musicians who entertained us there, a quiet view of the river and a video of the vestibule in Diocletian's Palace.

Today we're in Dubrovnik and as I write it's gray and rainy. I'm not sure what we're going to get to see, but as long as I have some rain protection I'm going to get out and about. Dave feels better today so he may join me as well. At least we won't need sunblock!

Anchors Aweigh!

Here's our home for the next ten days or so -- the Celebrity Constellation, at the port of Ravenna where we boarded her yesterday. We took an early bus from Lake Garda with the others who bought our tour package, mostly British, and now we're all just tiny lettuce leaves mixed into the huge tossed salad of nationalities on the ship. Many of the passengers seem to be Americans, at least based on accents. No MAGA hats so far.

We have a balcony room on deck nine, which is pretty high up. We're just beneath the front of the big black funnel on the top of the ship, with the big X on the side. (Apparently that's the symbol of Celebrity Cruises, and one wonders how Elon Musk feels about that.) The deck that looks like a black line is the solid wall of windows in the Ocean View Cafe, the ship's biggest buffet restaurant, which is where I am now. Our "stateroom" is one floor below that. ("'Stateroom' sounds so 'Love Boat,'" Dave said yesterday.)

We were all settled in our quarters by early afternoon, looking over a beach adjacent to the port. There were windsurfers and people parasailing, and this...

...which I believe is technically known as a "big fishing thing."

This is the shipboard martini bar, where I am going to do my best to not spend all my free time, but we did settle in there yesterday for a drink before dinner. Those two women on the barstools talked about how many times before they'd been to Italy, and on how many other cruises. They reminded me of my stepmother, who was always on one cruise or another. It's a way of life for some people, though I can't imagine doing it regularly.

We went for dinner at the Tuscan Grill, a specialty restaurant which I suppose was somewhat Tuscan, and while we were there the ship finally got underway. One minute I looked out the window and saw the concrete pier where we were docked, and the next, the pier was gone and we were moving. It was all very subtle. The ship is so big I couldn't even feel the change.

We had an after-dinner dink in the Sunset Bar at the back of the ship ("aft," as the old salts would say).

And this morning we're off the coast of Croatia, where we begin our adventures.

Unfortunately Dave's Crohn's disease has been acting up, which is why he's been hanging back on some of the trip activities so far. He said he may not go ashore today, but has urged me to go on my own (we have a purchased excursion planned). So we'll see what happens with that.

Two minor criticisms so far: The coffee in the Ocean View Cafe is terrible. It tastes like burned rubber. I might switch to tea for this trip! And I could do without the overloud piped-in modern pop music by whiny, shouty singers.

But the view is pretty darn spectacular.

Heller Garden and Sirmione

Yesterday was our only full day in Lake Garda, and I don't see how I could have done any more than I did. I crammed that day full.

Dave and I started by going to the Heller Garden, a botanical and sculpture garden near our hotel. It was originally planted beginning in 1903 by Arthur Hruska, a dentist and surgeon. After Hruska's death in 1971, it went into a decline until it was eventually purchased by Austrian artist André Heller, who filled it with contemporary sculpture. It's a tranquil space and Dave and I enjoyed walking around the hilly grounds and spotting all the plants we have in our own garden -- and some we'd like to have.

That's artist Niki De Saint Phalle's "Adam and Eve" above. Heller invited artists from all over the globe to spend time in his garden, including Lou Reed, who spent his 60th birthday there, according to the website. (I connected to that story, not only because I'm also named Reed but because I turn 60 this year!)

I even bought a t-shirt bearing art that Keith Haring created for the garden in 1990.

Even just walking around town here, the plants are pretty impressive -- especially the bougainvillea, which is exploding with color at this time of the year. After leaving the garden, Dave and I had lunch in a waterfront pizza place not far from this towering display.

After lunch, Dave went back to the room to rest. I bought a ticket to go to Sirmione, another town on the lake, by boat. Apparently Sirmione is the place to see on Lake Garda -- blogger Sharon mentioned in the comments that she's been there -- and I didn't want to pass it up. I wouldn't have much time there, so I had to make every minute count.

As the boat pulled up to the wharf in Sirmione, I got a good view of the castle, built in the late 1300s.

I also got a good view of our hunky boat attendant's optimistic tattoo.

I walked past the castle (but didn't go in) and around the perimeter of the peninsula, up to the Grottoes of Catullus, the ruins of a Roman villa. Along the way I passed this eye-catching sculpture on a beach, by a group called Cracking Art that makes sculpture from recycled plastics.

Remember that blue dog (some of you thought it might be a cat) that I saw on the balcony in Stresa? It's a Cracking Art piece, too.

Here are some of the ruins. There was a lot of up-and-down climbing and stairs to get to them, but it was worthwhile. They're connected to Catullus by legend -- in one of his poems he "describes his return to his beloved house in Sirmione," according to Wikipedia.

As I mentioned yesterday the ruins are featured in the movie "Call Me By Your Name"; scenes were filmed there and on the beach below.

And here's the beach, known as Giamaica (Jamaica) Beach. In the movie, Elio accompanies his father and Oliver on an archaeological visit here, while a Roman statue is being recovered from the lake. When they visit the beach it's practically empty, but as you can see that was not the case yesterday!

And then I had to hot-foot it to the pier to catch the boat back to Gardone. I had a little more than an hour in Sirmione, all told, but it was enough to enjoy the colorful narrow streets and see the main features. By the time I got back to our hotel, cleaned up and collected Dave, it was dinnertime and I was craving an Aperol spritz. We ate at a little restaurant on the water and then came back to our room and watched, of course, "Call Me By Your Name."

Today we're off to Ravenna to board our cruise ship. In fact we're supposed to leave quite early, just after 7 a.m., so I gotta get packing. Coming to you tomorrow from somewhere on the Adriatic Sea!