Pleasent change in Plans

Under our door after supper was a notice that due to stormy weather, our next port of call would not be Amalfi as planned but would be Sorento. OK, so now I knew why I went to bed woozy, we were basically in a storm at sea. So now all the prep time I made exploring via the Internet, Amalfi and the surrounding area, all the times I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" to see its' neighboring city Positano, I was not going to see either town. What the heck did Sorento have to offer?

Low and behold Sorrento is close to Pompei, a place my husband and I have always found fascinating, and low and behold, they had an excursion that would visit the city of Pompei. We found that here was one excursion we had to take advantage of. AND it wasn't very expensive. Under 60 Euros each, we signed on. Though this was over our budget for the day, the last two days plus the first day at sea we came up way under our budget so the money was available.

Sorrento had to be tendered into. In other words you had to take a small boat from the ship to the town as there was no dock at Sorrento. I painted Sorrento from the photo of the scene from the tender boat. And truly the colors are just as I remembered them. A storm was gathering which created the beautiful cloud formations and cast awesome shadows on the cliffs of the town. Once we boarded our bus to Pompei we found that in Europe, the biggest car wins. Streets were just as tight as Messina, maybe tighter with all the cars parked at either side of the narrow roads. If you met a bus such as we were in, you backed into the closest "hole" to let us pass and thus we made our way to the ancient city of Pompei. And yes, they let you see the dead people.

Most of our time was spent as a tour group waiting for the older folks to walk along the uneven roads of Pompei. Our tour guide was constantly encouraging faster walking so that we could see more of what turned out to be a huge city with markets and it's own coliseum. AND he was hurrying us along because the clouds were gathering heavier and rain was threatening.

As the rain finally began to pour we all found shelter in a Pompei bath house across from the "house of ill repute" complete with a carved penis over the door. We spent the rest of our tour in the bath house but it was really neat to see the carvings and paintings on the wall and have time to savor the thoughts of the ancient Pompeians basking in this luxury.

The worse thing about Pompei is that I let my camera battery die so all I could do was enjoy and try to burn the images of this fascinating city plus the highlights of the streets on Sorrento on my brain instead of on my digital "film". But I did get one more photo of some columns of Pompei and I used them for another of my paintings for my one man show.

Sorrento became one of our favorite stops on our trip and a place that we hope to return to someday. We could have spent a whole day in Pompei and the town of Sorrento was absolutely lovely with it's tight streets filled with shops, quaint hotels and cafes, affordable food and souvenirs, fascinating wood work, and steep cliffs overlooking the sea. Ah, Sorrento.

Messina

Nighttime falls on our first excursion day and I find that sleeping on a cruise ship as it runs from port to port is indeed enjoyable. The humming of the engine lulls you to sleep and if there is a slight roll it just rocks you like a baby in a cradle.

Then here's another of the reasons that we really loved traveling through Europe on a cruise ship. Each dawn brings a new location. Like magic, you awaken with a new city and a new site to see. Fortunately we most always seemed to be on the dock side of the boat. On this particular morning, day two of our excursions, we awoke to this site of Messina, Sicily before the boat docked. This is a good shot of what the view looked like out of our room window. Remember I said we got a "deal" for taking an obstructed view room. Well, our window was approximately 5 feet by 6 feet (no small porthole here) and it never bothered me to have a lifeboat right outside.
From my studies of Messina I found that most of the city was destroyed during WW II and rebuilt so all the ancient buildings were pretty much gone. We found it to be just a nice city and with no particular place in mind that I just had to see while I was there, we slept late, met up with some fellow travelers and just walked the downtown streets. Aimlessly we went armed only with a city map and ultimately got kinda turned around and lost. We stumbled upon some pretty rough sections of the downtown and had it not been for our sheer numbers I might have felt ill at ease. Bums and hobos abounded and most of the people who looked like they belonged there were city workers on their way to jobs.

One thing that my husband wanted to make sure I got a picture of was the motorcycles along the street. It seems that they have super engines that we can't get in motorcycles in the states mainly because of environmental issues. All you motorcycle fanatics take note and enlarge the picture and you can see better what he's talking about.

I found the streets to be incredibly crowded with cars, motorcycles and buses. Motorcycles and small cars were parked anywhere and everywhere they would fit. I couldn't imagine anything larger than a smart car maneuvering through the traffic when I happened upon their means for supplying all the stores along these tight streets. Just take a small car and load it top to bottom like this one.

One of the highlights of Messina was an opportunity to taste my first gelato (Italian ice cream). I told the vendor that it was my first and he added the red waffle cookie to the top.

We didn't start our walk til about 9:00 or 10:00 and with all the wandering around I figured we would miss one of the only events that we needed to see in Messina, the clanging of the clock tower at noon but low and behold just down the street from the gelato store was the town square with the church and clock tower.

This was the Cathedral of Norman and the bell tower is a famous astronomical clock built in Strasbourg and moved here in 1933. It has a lion that roars, a rooster, and many Biblical figures that react to the chimes at noon. We were there just in time and it was well worth the wait.

Along with all the tourists to see this tower were bunches of street vendors with scarves to sell. They were only 5 Euros so here was the perfect souvenir of Messina and it kept me well within my budget as I picked up several for relatives and friends.

After noon, the crowd dispersed and we entered the cathedral, one of many in Europe. As my husband said, "you can't spit in Europe without hitting a cathedral". Upon entering I was flabergasted at the beautiful artwork. Paintings, statues, wood carvings, marble floors - you name it and all so reverent and beautiful.

But as we returned to the dock I took a photograph of a "Jane's Perspective" sort of thing. On the wall across the street front he boat dock were these enlarged pictures. Kinda neat, huh?

Back onboard, it's happy hour time, time for supper in the Grand ballroom and then straight to bed cause I was feeling a little woozy. Tell you why in the next blog.

Souvenirs of Malta

It's been almost a month since I last left you in Malta so what was a one day stopover for me turned into a much longer wait for you. My apologies. I've been working constantly for my one man art show in April. As of this date I only have 6 more paintings to do to have a full show of 26 pieces. Check out my photo albums on facebook and you can see some of the work in progress.

But it's still inexcusable that I attempt to interest you in my blogspot and then don't keep it up.

That said, at the end of the day in Malta I took my $50 budget and began to look for souvenirs of this fabulous town. Having at least googled Malta for it's history I found that one of the most obvious things that came from Malta was the Maltese Cross.

From Jane's perspective, there are tons of "things" that one can get on a vacation to Europe. Clothes, jewelry, purses, shoes, abound but with the devalued dollar at the time we took the cruise, I figured I could get most all of this "stuff" at home, and for less cost. What I really wanted to take home from my trip were items that I could only get in the lands I was visiting.

Thus my souvenirs of Malta became a fabulous sterling silver Maltese Cross for myself and two more masculine Maltese Cross key chains for my sons. Total cost was no more than my budget and I not only have a great souvenir but each piece packed easily for the return trip home. Remember all that luggage that I was trying not to take - well, if you start purchasing glass vases, big boxed items and such for souvenirs then you might even have to purchase extra suitcases for the trip home.

One of my recommendations is that if you really have to have a larger item see if they will ship it home for you or find out if the store has a website and you can order from home when you return from your trip. That would save your trip budget and give you time to re-think the glamour and expense of the item once all the bills from the trip come in.

Once back on board the ship, we slept til "happy hour", used some of our shipboard credit for per dinner drinks, and went to the Toscana (the Italian themed restaurant on board) for a fabulous meal with our fellow travelers.