Today was a sea day as we sailed away from the Greek islands towards Sicily, the toe of Italy and the Messina Strait en route to Naples.
If you've never been on a cruise, let me assure you, there's never a shortage of things to do. If you want to sit and chill and relax, you can do so in a coffee bar, in a long area, by pool on the sundeck, in the solarium etc etc. If you want to get a drink the bars are open all day. So are some of the restaurants. There are live bands, shops, a casino, a theatre with shows. Or the quietness of your stateroom. You get the picture.
Today myself and our friends husband James had booked a wine and cheese tasting in one of the restaurants, This was a paid "event" (ie not included in the "basic" cruise price, but we both fancied this.
We turned up at the allotted time for an introduction by the ship's Cellar Master before being handed over to one of the many Sommeliers on board who took us through the wines (and the cheese). I'd never though about particular win/cheese pairings before, just that wine and cheese go together, but this was an eye opener, how particular cheeses complemented and changed the tastes of particular wines. Cheese like a Brie with champagne anyone? Blue cheese with a nice Amerone? Spot on.
We also learnt that the finder the bubbles in Champagne, the better the quality (generally). The bubbles in our Taittinger were almost needle like. And Chardonnay is complemented by a nice harder waxy cheese like Comte.
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| Our cheese and wine glasses - Chardonnay poured |
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| This was nice.... |
Suitably refreshed we found the ladies and who were around the pool on the main sundeck watching the guests vs crew Volleyball match. It would be fair to say that the match was competitive, especially shown by our ships master
Captain Tanos (he of the orange shorts). Needless to say the crew and the whole match was watched by a raucous crowd.
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| Crowds watch the crew v guests volleyball |
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| The crew - Capt. Tanos in the orange shorts |
As awakes as afternoon turned to evening, we donned our smart gear and headed first to the martini bar for a sharpener, before another lovely dinner. And whilst eating dinner we watched a stunning sunset just north of the Strait of Messina.
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Tyrrhenian Sea sunset
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After dinner we went for a stroll on the upper decks and watched on the port side as we passed
Stromboli, an active volcano, which unimaginably is an inhabited island.
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| Stromboli at dusk |
A great day at seas then, finished off by passing an active volcano. Tomorrow sees us dock in our final port Naples, before heading back to Civittavechia. And when we do, we'll get to see yet another volcano. The might
Vesuvius.
If you're counting that means we'll have seen the following volcanoes on this seven night trip.
- Stromboli (twice)
- Mount Etna (twice)
- Santorini
- Mount Vesuvius
That's not a bad little collection.
On to Napoli!
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