Italy Trip - 13, Messina, Sicily, Italy

Hi, Our third port of call was Messina, Sicily.

This statue, Stelle Della Madona Della Letera, greets ships entering the harbor.

An excellent view of the city was available from the sundeck of the ship. Here is Temple Christ the King.

We decided to just walk into the city instead of taking a shore excursion off the ship. We passed through Piazza Unione Europea and came upon this war memorial.

Occasionally a really old car, such as this Fiat 500 (above and below) was seen. This model was built from 1957 to 1975.

Eventually we came to Fontana de Orione in the Piazza Duomo (above and below).

The main attraction here is the Protometropolitana Basilica Cattedrale. At noon there is a show in which the statues in the various windows move (see seven below),

Note the different positions of the heads and the closed vs open mouth in the photos above and below.

The old and the new - horse drawn carriage and cell phone.

There were some pretty building decorations (above and two below).

After our walk I paused to take a photo of our ship. Thanks for looking.

Italy Trip -12, Naples, Italy

Hi, Our second port of call on our cruise was Naples. Accompanied by Ila Beck, the mother of the groom, we took a taxi to the National Archaeological Museum. This museum is reputed to have the finest collection of items recovered from Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Here we found statues (above and three below),

art (above and two below),

including this mosaic,

artifacts (above and below),

and ceilings (above and below).

There also were some odd things such as these three batmen and

two statues of Yoda.

After lunch we walked back to the ship. Here are some of the street scenes we photographed (above and three below).

After Ruthe and Ila returned to the ship I continued to explore the area near the port. This fountain is called Fontana del Nettuno.

A few blocks further on was the Piazza del Plediscito partially surrounded by Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco di Paola.

On the way back to the ship I stopped to photograph Castel Nuovo. Thanks for looking.

Italy Trip - 11, Ajacciao, Corsica, France

Hi, The first port on our Mediterranean cruise was Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. Here we took our only shore excursion off the ship.

Our arrival in Ajaccio provided some very nice views of the island (above and below).

The first part of our shore excursion was a bus ride out to Pointe de Parata. There were two Genoese Towers located here built for defense purposes. One was on the mainland the other on the peak at the far right in the above photo.

On our return I was able to grab some photos of a Corsican cemetery from the bus (above and below). Interment is above ground in these small buildings. which appear to be mausoleums.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio and there is a statue of him in the Place d'Austerlitz.

The town provided a number of photo ops which we took advantage of. Some of the resulting images are shown above and six below.

The interesting streetlights we have found in Europe during our visits has always intrigued us.

Europeans love to decorate their windows with flowers (above and below).

At the citadel donkeys grazed in what was once the moat.

Thanks for looking.