The earliest start of all as we have to be back to the ship for an early sailing at 2 PM. our destination today is Mt Etna. We had an entertaining tour guide (with a Sicilian sense of humour ) who doesn’t see her job as work. We had a great bus driver too. He had to be. We took seats behind him so we could see how he dealt with traffic. Getting there and back was part of the entertainment. He had to anticipate what cars and trucks were doing by sounding his horn before it happened. The best sort of defensive driving, To do this, you treat everybody like an idiot and did he have great instincts .It does help by being the biggest and most imposing on the road when you are tackling a hairpin bend. We were a wee bit concerned for other motorists and the 1.5-hour trip didn’t seem to take as long. Etna means “Mountain of Mountains” and is the largest active volcano in Europe. The bus took us to 2000m and we viewed the Silvestri Craters. Due to the time constraints we only had 45 minutes to walk around and as our guide said, “ Ïf I don’t get you all back to the ship my Sicilian bosses will deal with me and you know how they do that”. There was a cable car that could take you to the top or pretty much near it, but the round trip was too long which was a shame. They also ski on Etna in the winter, which surprised me as I thought Italy would be too hot, but there you go you learn something every day. To commemorate the event we took some small Etna rocks to say we have been here and done that. Hopefully after soaking them in hot water, we can get them through NZ customs. They have delicious Sicilian Honey but alas we are not even going there.
The trip back was interesting; our driver’s motor skills were tested to the limit when we nearly took out two motorcyclists. The village streets are so narrow and it is not uncommon for a car to play chicken with the bus. A truck in front of us took out a parked car’s wing mirror and we were unsure of the fate of a small Citroen parked around the corner. Funnily enough “Barf” bags are not on this bus and then it happened….one of our younger passengers couldn’t hold it in any longer and stumbled to the front of the bus nearly emptying the contents of her stomach over the floor and driver and missing me by inches. Fortunately it was fresh ice cream and not more digested. A plastic bag was dispatched, the offending mess was cleaned up and peace reined supreme again.
Passed the village of Sambuka, which was used as the location of the GodFather because it is still authentic 1940s style. Francis Cappola took a couple of years to find just the right location.
Back to the ship with our nose now pointed towards Rome and our departure from the ship eminent so sorted out our limo transfer to Rome. The ship took a diversion past the island of Stromboli which is Sicily’s other active volcano. Amazed there is still a sizeable village here but that is Italian’s for you (Sorry Michael, I still love you)
In reply to Lynn on how spunky the butler is… I am not that sort of girl dharling. Romy is Honduran, 28 years old and attached. Easy on the eye, but a bit short, but you know I fancy only older men. He was more interested in polishing Bill’s shoes, tying his tie on formal night. Don’t think he combs hair and runs a bath, but he does laundry and makes cool towel sculptures…Now let me think… there was a gorgeous Frenchman who worked on the Railway information desk in Paris, now thought of bringing him back for Wendy….
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