March 4. Malta.

Today's stop was Malta, the smallest independent island in the world. The population is only 600,000 and this is almost double what the population was when Malta joined the European Union in 2004. Tourism is the main economic engine. They also have a lot of online gambling, banking, etc. type of businesses because of the tax laws and the fact that though Maltese is the main language, English is also an official language of the country and everyone speaks it. Malta's only exports are potatoes to Holland and Bluefin Tuna to Japan. 

We had a private tour and our guide Raymond was amazing. He took us all over the island. At its widest point it is 9 miles by 13 miles. It is known for having been ruled by just about everyone... including the Romans, Moors, Knights of St. John, French and finally British from 1800-1964. They still drive on the "wrong" side of the road because of that... So Penny got to experience that on this trip. They have only been independent since 1964. Their language is very interesting because Maltese is a unique Semitic language with strong Sicilian-Italian and English influences, written in the Latin alphabet. 

We worked our way all around the island. We started at the old fisherman's village, then went to the Megalithic Temples, the oldest standing building in the world, that were built between 3600 and 2500 B.C. They were ruins, but it was interesting that we could walk through them and the walls were still in place so we could make out the various areas and rooms. We also went to the highest point in Malta to look over the picturesque rock cliffs over the blue sea. We had some time at the end of the tour to spend in Valletta, the capitol and another Unesco World Heritage site. It is again just so unique to see this city that was built in the 1500s that has stores and apartments and normal life in and among these structures that were built so long ago.  

Raymond had a few funny sayings... Every time we got to our next stop on the tour he would say, "Hail Mary, Full of Grace, Let me Find a Parking Place". We also went over speed humps often and he said they called those the "sleeping policeman".

 

 

 

When we were back on the ship, it was gala night. We put on our (slightly) fancier cloths and headed out to the champagne bar, had a drink and then to our dinner. The highlight of the night was going to the secret speakeasy on board. It was super fun. We had heard about it before coming onboard and got the reservation. At the appointed time we went to what looked like just a traditional red London phone booth and dialed the number. Someone opened the back of the phone booth and took us down two floors in the crew area to "Jack's Place", a super themed little space for a few dozen people that was decorated with lots of stuff from the 20s and 30s. We had fancy cocktails and listened to the two different jazzy groups that rotated through. It was a memorable experience. Then we headed to the Gin Project bar to wrap up the night. Sea day is tomorrow, so that means sleeping in and relaxing.  

 

March 2. Boarding the Cruise

We had a low-key day. We got up and had hotel breakfast and then made our way back to the airport for the bus transfer to the cruise ship. It took about an hour to get to the Civitavecchia cruise port. 

It took less than 10 minutes to check in and we were quickly aboard having welcome champagne. 

Our ship is the MSC World Europa, currently in 10th place for the largest cruise ships in the world. I've never been on an MSC cruise. This ship was basically picked because the other major cruise lines are only here in the summer. 

It's always a process, (and a relief,) unpacking our suitcases for the week. When we were done with that task we headed out to explore the ship and barhop. We also went to the evening show. A fantastic British singer sang the hits of woman icons - Adele, Cher, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston. Then we headed to dinner and had funny servers who I think were as entertained by us as we were with them. Then more drinks, then bed.

Good first impressions of the ship so far. It's also amazing that it seems like most of the people working speak five different languages. This is a very international crowd. 

 

March 3. Sicily, Italy

Today our cruise wasn't scheduled to get into port in Sicily until noon. We slept in and had breakfast delivery scheduled to our room. We watched from our balcony as the picturesque coastline came into view and we docked. 

We docked in Messina, Sicily's third largest city, population of 200,000.(Palermo is first with a million people.)

 

 

I scheduled us on an all day small group tour through Viator to Castelmola and Taormina. They were about an hour away from Messina, but provided more history and what you imagine of Italian seaside cities. Messina was wiped out by two tsunamis in 1908 caused by an earthquake under the water in the straight between the mainland and Messina.

Our guide, Mariarita was an over the top personality who was a delight. On our hour ride she told us history, random factoids, and gave us classic almond cookies. I was expecting them to be hard, but they were soft and tasty.

 

Also as we were driving we could see Mt. Etna in the distance among the clouds. That was a cool sight. It fogged up later in the day so we couldn't see it from our stops unfortunately.

After some driving back and forth up the mountainside we made it to our first stop, Castelmola. It is a small village (population about 1,100) that hovered high over the mountainside and seascape below. Mariarita walked us around the main square and told us it was built in 1078 by the Normans. She told some funny stories... that the flowerpots are all heads because a man was romancing a Sicilian woman and ... the next morning the man told her he had to go back to his wife... so she cut off his head and put it in the garden. She also showed us the "Penis Bar" where everyone was getting shots of the almond wine in penis shot glasses and you keep the glass... It was a small town, but had beautiful streets and alleyways.

 

 

 

We then made our way down the mountainside to Taormina, originally a Greek settlement from 4 B.C. It is so very interesting seeing places that are so, so old but are now so fancy... the Four Seasons from the second season of White Lotus was filmed here. We got the Sicily specialties arancino rice ball specialties and traditional cannoli. 

 

 

 

 

We got back on the ship late, after 7pm. Since it was Taco Tuesday, we headed to the Taco restaurant onboard. It was all you can eat and they brought so much delicious food... We had then to stop after they brought nachos, five different kinds of tacos, two different burritos, three different quesadillas... plus chips and guac... they said we still had two types of enchiladas... we couldn't eat them! A great end to a great day!