Memorable Anniversary Part IV

Carnival Freedom made a majestic departure from Venice in the evening around 5 p.m.on a beautiful Sunday evening. Almost everyone in the ship moved to the open deck to watch the departing procedure taking photographs of the beautiful islands. The ship slowly moved through massive backwaters with the land on either side and finally reached the beautiful looking Mediterranean Sea. It was a relaxing week end for everyone as the next day the ship was planning to sail all day to reach Messina, Sicily the following day early morning. We had an outstanding dinner and retired to our room.


The next day was fun day at sea. As planned my wife and I spent most of the time in the SPA. She focused on beauty parlor while I spent most of the time on reflexology treatment. My wife suggested that for me. I did not know what I was getting into to. When the therapist was pressing some of the nerves in my foot, I had a strange feeling of calmness in my mind. After we finished up, we went back to the room. I told my wife that I was tired and wanted to sleep for at least an hour. I had one of the longest spell of sleep and woke up nearly close to dinner. Then, I came to know that reflexology does that to everyone. As usual, we went around the top deck for one round before getting ready for dinner. We all planned a visit to go up the mountain of Messina the next day.


The following day, the ship was approaching Messina Sicily. Again, we watched the beautiful Italian coast when the ship sailed between Island Sicily and South Italy. Finally, the ship docked in Messina and we were all ready to board the designated busses to go to the top of the mountain. It was a two hour journey for us to get to the top of the mountain. As usual, we had a guide announcing the history of the mountain. To provide some history here again, Messina is another mountain that had emitted lava almost regularly in the past once every 100 years. He asked us to watch the type of plants that grow at each stage we claim in the mountain. It was amazing to see how the plants adapt to their needs. At every stage we claimed, we noticed the type of trees kept changing until we reached the final claim to the top where there were no plants at all. It is a thick dark ash left by those regular lava emissions. We got down at the top of the mountain to take some pictures of the blackened mountain and stayed there for nearly an hour. Then started dissenting and the guide told us that we would stop for lunch at a nice location on our way back in the mountain.



We approached a nice town on the way and the bus stopped at a specific location. The building looked like a massive house with nice garden around the building. The décor of that building attracted our attention so much so that everyone spent more time watching the architecture and beautiful paintings inside the palatial house. Finally, at a room, they organized lunch and after finishing the lunch we were all told to go to a huge room that could hold more than 100 people. When we entered the room, we noticed that the place was like a museum displaying various hand-crafted articles made in that town. We walked around the display. I was politely asking my wife whether she wanted a souvenir. She said there was nothing that she liked. Before she could complete that sentence, she quickly moved to a specific spot and picked up a beautiful necklace that looked like made out of some precious stone that I could not remember. When she picked it up, I noticed that three other women said that they were going to buy the same. Unfortunately, they had only one piece of that. The ladies were offering to give away the necklace to each other but finally, the ladies got together and told that the one that picked it in hand should get it. It was an excellent jewellery for the value of 65 euros. I thought it should be much more expensive than that. My wife was pleased about that pride possession especially getting out of a touch competition.


We reached back Carnival Freedom just an hour before the departure and the ship started sailing towards the next stop which was Barcelona, Spain.

 

RGS,

Thank you for your fb, as always.

Viswa