Another terrific day today - we did a private tour, again, with 'Joe Bananas', a company that specialises in smaller groups and which costs a whole lot less than using the Princess tours which cram 45 people into one large bus!
We started with the Godfather tour where we were driven along the coast to a small town up in the hills called Savoca. Here we saw Bar Vitelli (where Michael speaks with Apollonia's father in the movie) as well as the church where they were married. But there is a twist - this church was only used externally - they were married in another church in the next town we visited, called Agostiniana. The interior of the church was beautiful and it will be worth watching the film again as it was made in 1972 and hard to remember all the details. This town was quite medieval with narrow winding cobblestone streets. The views from all there these towns were amazing, every bit as lovely as the Amalfi coast.
We then drove on to the beautiful town of Taormina - wow! Fantastic! What a gem! We had 3 hours to wander the narrow streets, browse in the many and varied shops and have lunch with our new friends from California, Pattie & Gaylord. Also enjoyed a bottle of Sicilian Syrah, as nice as anything we've had on this trip. Tried to buy a bottle to bring on board but couldn't find any.
After having a rest and a gin & tonic we ate quite late and shared a table with a couple from Perth. Was a most amusing dinner - this couple, Dot & Jeff, still haven't got their luggage!!!!! And this is day 9! Turns out they were on board a flight at Dublin airport when the Captain announced that due to having too much fuel loaded the night before, the plane was overloaded & all the luggage would need to be offloaded. Long story short, they made it onto the ship but not their luggage. It seems that for the first 4 sea days he would don a cabin dressing gown and wander down to the laundromat to do their washing. (They only had what they were wearing). So Dot, being a rather large lady, went shopping in Civitavecchia but couldn't find anything to fit her! Next day in Naples he went shopping for the both of them and finally, at the last minute, he was able to buy her some shirts, four, in fact, & would have bought more but they didn't have any more in the size!!!, still couldn't find any knickers to fit her but did find some for himself & ended up paying $150 for 6 pair!!! By now we were in stitches! As to the luggage, it was meant to be waiting for them in Rome but no show! Now expected to be in Dubai so will be interesting to see if it turns up. All her medications, jewellery are in her case & she's had to get medications from the ship's doctor & they are obviously not the same & she's having issues with that.
We set sail at 5 pm, Calabria is just across the water, only 2 miles separating Sicily from the mainland. We will be in Aqaba in 5 days.
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