Day 4...

Found us in the largest island in the Mediterranean: Sicily, Italy (where the Godfather movies were filmed AND where the mafia originated). We docked at the island's largest city, Messina, and took an excursion to the largest active volcano in Europe. It was an exciting day that started as soon as the wake up call came. Our routine was I would answer the wake up call, get in the shower, and Jason would stumble out onto the patio and have a cigarette. I wasn't in the shower for longer than two minutes until I heard him saying "baby baby you've got to see this". I will never forget this moment he was like a kid on Christmas morning. We were fascinated many times on the cruise since we had never been on one before. Awakening to this sight and knowing we were about to go explore it was like Christmas morning.

This is Mount Etna. I still can't believe I saw a real, active volcano. The last time it erupted was just a couple of years ago. We drove a long, winding road up the mountain through beautiful villages. It looked how I pictured Italy to look in my mind; lots of terra cotta, shutters, flowers, wineries, I don't know hard to explain. In the picture below those aren't clouds, it's smoke from the lava....cool eh?

The closer we got to the top the more we were seeing remnants of past eruptions. There was lava rock everywhere. Thinking of what this must have looked like at some point glowing red from an eruption scared me. I couldn't imagine the horror that people face when a volcano is erupting and they need to evacuate. Made me wonder why on earth this people would live so close to this constant threat.

By the time we got to the top it was raining and cold. The bus took us to a local cafe where we had cannolis (hard to explain, but it's a yummy Italian dessert with a crisp outer shell stuffed with cream and pistachios), some type of juice, and almond wine (smelled awesome, tasted horrible). Then we went to a crater that formed from an eruption; basically the pressure from the lava was so intense that it busted up through the ground in this spot behind dad, Lindsay, and I.

We then got back on the bus and drove through some beautiful spots. We were back at another point in the ocean (probably about a 45 minutes drive from the volcano), because they wanted to show us how far the lava has travelled in past eruptions. Yup, that's lava rock from lava hardening due to cooling from the ocean. It was all so fascinating. I feel like I'm not doing it justice by typing it here, you'll just have to go :)

After our 7 hour adventure we found ourselves tired, and back on the ship for a night of adventures. It always began with stuffing ourselves, participating in the nightly trivia, heading to the live show in the theatre, and then some late night dessert and possible gambling at the casino before we hit the sack.

Next stop...Our FAVORITE spot: Turkey!