Central Med Cruise and a Week in Sicily

In August, we got Lily settled in her duplex in Kansas City (we furnished a 3 bedroom duplex and moved her in under 48 hours). It was a crazy time, but she and her roommate (her best friend from high school) live there and then rent out the primary bedroom to traveling medical professionals. We took a flight to Washington, D.C. to see Rich’s brother and his family. He was finishing up his command at a local army post and wanted to take a vacation to Italy. We found a great weeklong cruise and asked if we could join them. Then we invited Rich’s sister….so all in all, 6 adults were travelling. We flew to Sicily and spent a couple of days there before we left out of Messina, Sicily on the MSC World Europa for a week. Our cruise was on one of those huge mega ships with a total of 9000+ people on board, to include the staff. It was pretty big and we found ourselves hanging out in the same places, so I am not sure I would go on another huge ship like that. We had a wonderful time though! We ended up going to Malta, France, Spain, and a few spots in Italy. We were in France on our 33rd wedding anniversary. It happened to be my 50th country. We had a wonderful time gallivanting around Europe. We walked the streets of Pompeii, which was very interesting. It was pretty warm at that time of year and the month of August was also when most of the Italian families were on vacation as well. That made places pretty crowded. After the cruise was over, we disembarked in Messina, Sicily and although Rich’s sister and our nephew had to fly back to the U.S., Rich’s brother and sister-in-law stayed with us for another 6 days and toured the island of Sicily. We had a lot of fun. It was pretty crazy seeing our last name on signs everywhere. We would love to go back. The food was fantastic, the driving an experience, and the weather was phenomenal. A warning to you ice coffee drinkers….ice coffee in Italy is not the same as ice coffee in the U.S.. They literally just put ice in your hot coffee. We came up with our new family motto, “Nessun raviolo lasciato indietro” which means “no ravioli left behind.” We tried lots of different food and almost never walked away disappointed. We enjoyed time in Messina, Cefalu, Agrigento, Catania, Palermo, Taormina, Syracuse, and Marsala. Rich and I lit candles in the cathedrals and even small churches along our path for our Joe. We even went four wheeling on Mount Etna. Sicily…the Messina family will be back!