We enjoyed dinner at the Crystal Dining Room for the second consecutive night.
We began our meal with a Pasta Appetizer which Head Waiter Augusto made for us. In addition to being a great Head Waiter, we love Augusto's cooking. Augusto was born in a suburb of Rome and makes some very delicious pasta dishes. This is the first time he prepared this particular recipe for us.
For our next course we each had standing order salads.
This is the salad that Keith gets.
Keith pre-ordered swordfish and had it butterfly style. It has a different look and taste from having a thick piece of swordfish and Keith really has enjoyed having it prepared in this manner.
This time the Swordfish was not only prepared butterfly style but it actually looked like a butterfly.
Anne Marie had the Seafood Paella. It was very well prepared and very tasty with a variety of seafood items.
We didn't take the photo but Kara had the Honey and Herb Marinated Rotisserie Chicken Half and Eric had the Modern Cuisine Pink Roasted Lamb Rack. Everyone was very happy with their entree selections.
For dessert all of us had something different. Keith had mixed berries. Anne Marie had the sugar free Rhubarb Mascarpone Cream Dessert. Kara had the Fruit Jell-O and Eric had the Bing Cherry Sherbet. As they say choice is good.
Afterwards, we went back to the room while Eric and Kara were staying out to enjoy the ship.
We slept very well as we are now sailing to our final port of Italy of this voyage; Taormina. We have visited both Taormina as well as Sicily several times and really enjoy this area of Italy. It has been a real treat for us to get back to the Mediterranean and we have enjoyed all of the ports that have been on both the last cruise and this one. This is a nice time of the year to visit these places.
Keith awoke first and read and wrote and worked out and made his morning stop to the Lido Cafe. We had breakfast earlier than usual to get ready for our early tour. Waking up tomorrow will be more of a challenge as we will set the clocks forward one hour.
As we did on two other tours, we had Rao pre-order us a boxed lunch. This has worked out very well and saves time during the tour. We don't eat off the ship very often unless there are no other options (can't bring food off the ship) or we really want to enjoy the local food.
Eric and Kara met us at the Crystal Plaza and then the four of us went down one deck to four to the Tender Landing to take one of the Tenders over to the Tender dock. We were met there by our private guide. We arranged a half day tour which included visiting two of the villages that were part of what is known as the Godfather tour and then we had a visit to Taormina.
Each of these villages involved driving up very windy roads that were at very high elevations. The provide very some of the most scenic views we have ever experienced. The weather was perfect; not too warm and not too cool and the villages were each very quaint. Each village was part of the various Godfather movies.
Our driver/tour guide was Luca and he did a nice job navigating the winding roads which also were not very wide and there were times if a vehicle was also parked on the side of the road and a vehicle was coming the other way that it was a tight fit.
We stopped to take some photos as we were headed to the first village of Savoca.
The village of Savoca was quite quaint and provides beautiful views. The church was where the wedding took place in the Godfather Movie and we also went into the bar that was also featured in the movie.
Luca told us about the Mafia that still has a presence in Sicily.
When in Sicily, you have to get into the spirit.
Even Mom and Eric got into the act.
Our next stop was to the village of Castelmola. To reach this village we had to drive back down the road and then we drove about thirty minutes and then we went up another very windy hill as we reached the top point where Catelmola is situated.
We walked around the village and also enjoyed some extraordinary views.
From Castelmola we then drove to Taormina which is an absolutely beautiful town and a favorite place to see in Sicily. We spent close to two hours walking around on our own and we sat in a park to enjoy the boxed lunch that Rao had prepared for the four of us.
When we got back to the Serenity we went to our room to change and these two "guys" were waiting for us.
We all changed. Keith and Eric played Paddle Tennis for a couple of hours and Anne Marie and Kara put on bathing suits and sat out by the pool.
All in all it was an absolutely perfect day. We learned a lot about Sicily and its history and saw some breathtaking views from the two villages and also enjoyed the beautiful town of Taormina.
This evening we are dining at Silk Road and tomorrow is the one sea day on this seven day voyage.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY……...
"There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends your friends close, but your enemies closer. - Michael Corleone From The Movie The Godfather
Keith & Anne Marie
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