World cruise 42

April 12 (Greek Orthodox Easter)

Today we stopped at Katakolon, Greece. Both of us took a tour called "Magna Grecia Farm Visit." It was a tour out into the countryside to visit a family-run business. It is named as it is because the husband was Greek and the wife was Italian. The husband is gone now, but the wife and her 2 sons have expanded the original olive groves and vinyards into a thriving tourist business for up to maybe 5 busloads at a time that retains the feeling of a non-commercial family farm. We were told that they also do educational tours for city school children.

We had an excellent tour guide named Helen, who was as close to a stand-up comedienne as I've ever heard on a tour. She kept us entertained both directions with tour guide information, but told with a great sense of humor and comedic timing.

When we arrived, we were greeted personally by members of the family and given a glass of their vinyard's white wine (or ouzo) and a miniature pie thing like an hors d'oeuvres.

Next was a brief tour of the farm and olive grove where one of the trees is 300-350 years old. By the way, all the photos of this tour are from Margaret 's camera.

Then we were ushered into the building for what was described as a "heavy snack" in the tour description but was really a full lunch. There was bread with their own olive oil, bruschetta with tomatoes from their gardens, regular feta cheese and a spiced version of feta, a piece of sausage flavored with orange (really good), olives of course, black-eyed peas, baklava, strawberries, their own red wine or mineral water, and a liqueur of honey and cinnamon. I've probably missed something, but here's a photo Margaret took of the table before we got at the food.

Thr room was interesting although evidently built to feed lots of people. There were interesting rafters and a chandelier decorated with flatware.

About the time most were finished eating, several family members began dancing, and pretty soon half the tourists were up and winding through the tables. The paper napkins got tossed on the floor by one of the family in handfuls like confetti when the young boy was doing some showy dance moves.

There were a number of the local products that could be bought. There was also an area where local students at a nearby vocational school and artisans could display their wares ranging from several styles of jewelry to ceramics and sculpture. Again, while out to make money, the whole operation had a very non-commercial air to it.

April 13

Messina, Sicily. I took an "easy" tour out to Mt. Etna that went about 2,000 feet up to a lava flow from (I think) 1928. Margaret took the "advanced" tour that went higher to a more recent flow.

Sicily was not on our original itinerary, but I'm glad to have had the chance to visit. I've been through the Straits of Messina several times, but never stopped before. Oh, our tour guide said that the name Sicily comes from 2 Greek words for figs and olives. Very appropriate. Here is a photo of the harbor with the coast of Italy across the strait in the background.

Our tour basically consisted of a nice bus ride along the coast and through several rather vertical villages. There was a brief stop at a spot where, if there had been no clouds, we might have had a view of the mountain. Here's a view of it that I got later from the bus.

After passing Catania and Taormina and going through an interminable number of tunnels, we went through several very vertical villages whose names I did not get. (while our guide's English was heavily accented but understandable, when she said something in Italian or the Sicilian dialect, it was not clear at all). They were interesting both going up and coming back down.

We did go up a winding road mostly lined with walls made of lava rock. (Yes, that's a healthy stand of prickly pear cactus which grows wild here.) At about 2,000 feet up, we stopped at the shrine at the end of the 1928 flow. The only other thing there was a guy selling local honey for which the area is noted. I resisted.

Our last stop was at a restaurant for refreshments. The logistics of the place with respect to a busload of rather less than agile senior citizens were not very good. Otherwise it was a nice place with a friendly cat who knew she was not allowed inside and who would eat cake if offered it out on the patio.

Lastly, another pleasant bus ride back to Messina with views of villages on top of the very steep hills. This medieval castle even has an elevator of sorts.