Day 4 – Planned: Naxos (Sicily) Actual: Messina

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My 50th Birthday – thanks for all the pressy and cards!

We docked at around 8am. We thought it was going to be Naxos in Sicily, home of Mount Etna, but the Captain decided that it wasn’t safe to anchor and announced that we’re going to Messina instead! Weather looks good – it’s going to be a hot day!

11am – Good news! They’ve found all our luggage and all the contents are intact too!!

So, it’s off by coach to Taormina for a quick mooch around the town. In spite of the rather hairy coach journey to the town (narrow roads, loads of tunnels, Italian driving style etc), we arrived in one piece.

We were dropped off at ‘floor 1’ of the multi-storey and told to get out at ‘floor 7’. To our surprise, it was a really pretty town, lots of nice shops and a really old open-air theatre ‘teatro greco’.

We had a good look-round as there were some stunning views.

On the way back we stopped off for the obligatory ice-cream and coffee.

Back on the coach by 3 and in our cabins by 4, just in time for afternoon tea.

We returned to the room to find a cake and two glasses of champagne to go with the cake that Ann had smuggled out in the case

..that was all followed by the grand pressy opening event!

The whole family clubbed together for a white 60gB iPOD and Ann bought me a classy black Rado watch – superb!

Caught ‘Something Gotta Give’ starring Jack Nicholson from the DVD library – excellent!

Sorrento tomorrow…