Our day started slightly later today, meaning that we got to enjoy a nice breakfast in the main dining room. I ordered two delicious chocolate chip pancakes. We then headed back to the room to sunscreen before heading to the Royal Theater to meet up with our tour group for the city of Messina on the island of Sicily.
Our first stop on the tour was a photo stop at the narrowest point of the Strait of Messina, the body of water separating the mainland of Italy from Sicily. As a matter of fact, even though Sicily is officially part of Italy, natives of Sicily generally prefer to be referred to as Sicilian rather than Italian.
After a quick bathroom stop, we headed to Messina’s famous clock tower to watch its noon show, which featured many moving figures and depicted several scenes including the Pentecost. After this, we went inside the neighboring cathedral to tour its museum of various works of art and artifacts. The cathedral was also home to the third-largest organ in Europe with 15,000 pipes!
The bus then went back to the port for the Voyager of the Seas (and the neighboring Disney Cruise), but we decided to spend more time in Messina since we didn’t have to board again for a few more hours. We started by getting lunch from a restaurant that we found by accident, but it ended up being my favorite meal of the whole trip so far!
After this, we went to a place our tour guide recommended to try Sicily’s famous cannolis. The rest of the family adored these, and while I didn’t dislike mine, it was admittedly not my thing. I was definitely glad to have tried it though.
After this, we decided to climb the clock tower to see all of the impressive figurines and moving parts up close. It was so cool to see them move from inside, and the views at the top were beautiful!
We then went to a gelato place for one last taste of gelato since we would have no more stops in Italy. Gelato has definitely been one of my favorite parts of the trip so far, and we just couldn’t leave without having it one more time. As usual, it was delicious!
After this, we boarded the ship once again and got cleaned up for dinner in the main dining room. This time, I ordered Italian minestrone, lasagna, and Italian Chocolate-Hazelnut cake, all of which were delicious! During dinner, my mom also said that she heard the pianist playing the song, “Hello, Dolly!” This is the second time I’ve heard the song on this trip, which is just so cool to me!
After some time spent checking out a live karaoke event but ultimately opting for the family karaoke being offered the next day, we went back to the room to get some rest.