Messina

Our last port on the first half of our cruise was Messina, a city on the island of Sicily. Just two miles across the straight of Messina is the toe of the boot of Italy. There has evidently been ongoing discussion of the possibility of building a massive bridge across the straight, but that seems unlikely for now.
Rather than wander around Messina, we chose to take a guided tour to Mount Etna, the well-known volcano about an hour and three-quarters south of Messina. Having written its name into crossword puzzles so many times over the years, we thought we ought to see the real thing. Along the way, we got a feel for this eastern part of Sicily as a resort community and were treated to views of lots of lemon groves, fig trees, vineyards, and other farming.
The volcano is over 11,000 feet high and is snow-capped. In the winter, there are two ski runs somewhere on the mountain. Lots of farming and residential property lies all around its perimeter up to maybe 4000 feet. We drove to over 6000 feet, where the scenery is more like a moonscape. There are supposed to be over 250 vents and craters all over the mountain. Its peak crater is more than 20 miles across, though we were nowhere near that. The volcano is called an intermittent volcano, because it periodically erupts, usually in relatively mild ways, though it does have its moments, usually accompanied by earthquakes. When it does erupt, people just seem to cope and rebuild, if necessary. We have seen other volcanoes before in Iceland and Hawaii, and the lava fields are very similar. Nevertheless, it will be fun to remember that we visited this very famous one.
We were at sea again by about 2PM, and we enjoyed the day playing bingo, where Kathie came within one call of winning over $1,048 before someone beat her to it. We read books in the sun on our cabin veranda, got dressed for dinner, had drinks in one of the bars, even danced a little, and gambled in the casino for awhile. The final dinner of this first ten-day cruise, as is the tradition of HAL, involved much silliness by the chefs, wait staff, wine stewards, and other attendants. They had all of us wearing chefs hats, and for three of the five courses, they paraded in with the servings while dancing and singing. Desert was the classic Baked Alaska dish. Lots of fun!